Abstract:

ChatGPT has made a significant impact on American campuses since its debut in November 2022. While many professors were unaware of its potential implication in education, some students quickly adopted it as a tool for writing papers and completing assignments. Although many schools have banned the use of ChatGPT, it is unlikely that students will stop using it. Acknowledging the unstoppable nature of ChatGPT, it is more advantageous to embrace its potential rather than engage in futile resistance. With the continuous advancements in artificial intelligence, integrating ChatGPT into foreign language instruction has the capability to revolutionize the learning experience, offering students innovative and interactive opportunities.

This proposal explores the application of ChatGPT as a teaching tool for advanced Chinese language instruction. Personal experiments conducted in advanced Chinese language classrooms are presented, outlining the benefits, challenges, and implementation strategies of incorporating ChatGPT into Chinese language teaching.

Traditional classroom approaches in foreign language instruction, particularly for the rapidly evolving Chinese language, heavily depend on outdated textbooks and teacher-led instruction. This limitation hampers students' exposure to current language trends and leads to decreased engagement and enthusiasm in the learning process. The integration of ChatGPT as a language learning tool has the potential to address these challenges and revolutionize Chinese language instruction.
During the Spring Semester of 2023, ChatGPT was integrated into two advanced Chinese language classes I was teaching at Davidson College in the USA. In the Chinese 302: Advanced Chinese II class, vocabulary and subject matter related to space travel, previously learned from a traditional textbook, were utilized to create a personalized drama using content generated by ChatGPT. Additionally, in the Chinese 451: Topics in Advanced Chinese class, students were tasked with using ChatGPT to summarize newspaper articles they were reading. These implementations aimed to explore the potential of ChatGPT in enhancing language learning experiences and fostering student engagement.

Results showed that students were highly engaged and enjoyed reading the plots and playing their roles while expanding their knowledge of space travel through the personalized drama. In the other class, text summarization using ChatGPT became a process of re-learning, as students encountered more abstract words and new grammatical structures. The students' Chinese language proficiency exhibited sophistication and polish in their report presentations. Notably, one student expressed that this approach provided more substantial learning outcomes compared to other classes at the college.

In conclusion, ChatGPT proves to be a powerful language tool capable of quickly and effectively engaging and captivating students in Chinese language instruction. However, instructors must closely monitor and modify the generated texts to ensure accuracy when utilizing this technology. Additionally, it is crucial to remind students that ChatGPT should be viewed as an enhancement to their learning process, rather than a total substitute.

Keywords:

ChatGPT, AI, Chinese language instruction, Teaching tool, Implementation strategies, foreign language teaching, Language trends, engagement, proficiency.