| Course Subject: | Undergraduate German |
| Student Level: | Beginning 1 (first-semester) and Intermediate 2 (fourth-semester) |
| Number of Students: | 15 students per section |
| Developed by: | Carolin Fuchs, Teaching Professor, Department of World Languages and Cultures |
What Students Did
During the last four weeks of the semester, students leveraged Claude’s chat feature to engage in text-based simulated conversations related to authentic tasks such as finding an apartment or applying for a job. They analyzed and compared their chat transcripts with their peers, and reflected on their experiences.
Purpose
The purpose was to help students improve their skills and confidence in using German in everyday conversational scenarios such as interviewing for a job or searching for an apartment. The simulations were grounded in the Language Learning Beyond the Classroom (LLBC) framework for language learning, which is an informal learning approach to learning a foreign language outside of formal structures (Benson, 2017). In addition to conversational fluency, the simulation supported student agency and self-directed learning, including their capacity to use AI purposefully in developing proficiencies that are best learned over time through practice.
Assessment
The conversation simulations in both the beginner and intermediate classes were formative assessments that contributed to the student’s engagement grade as well as the overall course grade. To receive credit, students were required to submit their chat conversation transcripts along with reflections about the process.
Chat transcripts were analyzed for fluency, pragmatic learning, and grammar improvements. Reflections were analyzed for growth in confidence and language development over time. The analyses showed that students improved in both confidence and competency. Their more passive and simplistic responses in the first simulation gave way to more complex conversations, initiation of topics, and thinking more directly in German rather than translating.
Faculty Reflections
Students appreciated real-world conversational contexts and the error correction the simulation provided. Students expressed a desire for longer simulations as well as voice chat functionality. For more advanced levels of language learning, more scaffolding of domain-specific vocabulary practice is needed. In addition, students may need more guidance on how to comfortably end conversations with the AI.
Step-by-Step Directions
| Step 1 | Assign the Simulation Task, including the information students need to run the simulation independently outside of class:
NOTE: Simulation task details, including prompts, are provided in the related materials. |
| Step 2 | Individually, outside of class, students engage in the simulation in German. When they are finished, they create a chat log link to share with the instructor and their peers. |
| Step 3 | After the simulation, students reflect on their experience as a group. They respond to several prompts in English within a discussion in the learning management system (Canvas), including the link to their simulation chat. Example guiding questions include:
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| Step 4 | Review the discussion and logs to determine strengths and gaps in student interactions with the bot, reported gains in confidence, and any other reflections about the experience that could be useful for further work with students individually or as a group. |
| Iteration | Students repeat the work as follows:
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Related Materials
Download PDF version of this assignment
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