From Manual to Automated: Enhancing Inclusivity in Foreign Language Education with Technology

Abstract: In the 2020/21 school year, the city state of Bremen (Germany) became the first German state to equip all students with iPads, thereby creating a key prerequisite for the digital transformation of teaching. Digital platforms open up new opportunities for interaction in the classroom and new forms of learning. This paper reports on the exploratory “MediaMeetsDiversity@School” project that aimed to investigate the viability and effectiveness of using digital learning platforms to support more inclusive foreign language education. The focus was on creating learning experiences that adapt to the needs of students with special requirements, including reading and spelling difficulties (dyslexia), multilingual students with limited exposure to German at home, and neurodivergent learners. To address the challenge of creating inclusive and adaptive digital content for diverse learners, we reviewed potential uses of AI in content creation. Since no established framework existed for automation in this context, we adapted and extended the SAE levels of automation to structure our analysis. The resulting framework distinguishes six levels of automation, ranging from Level 0 (manual content creation) to Level 5 (fully automated, unsupervised content generation at run-time). For the scope of this study, we focused on design-time automation (Levels 0–3) to ensure consistent and comparable learner experiences. We used web technologies to implement the app prototype, ensuring broad platform compatibility, while also optimizing it for the iPads used in Bremen schools. The app prototype consists of adapted content for two of the aforementioned target groups. The tasks for the dyslexia target group consist of multisensory training in phoneme-grapheme correspondence, while the tasks for the multilingual target group focus on promoting logic and metalinguistics. Both types of tasks progress from a tutorial to simple tasks (awareness), then to medium tasks (application), and finally to complex tasks (deepening). The content was evaluated in eight school classes (grades 5 to 7) from seven schools in Bremen and Lower Saxony. After a brief introduction, students worked with the prototype during a 90-minute school session. They then responded to a 22-question feedback survey with both scaled and open-text answers.The results indicate a high level of acceptance and engagement among students, who found the tasks enjoyable and motivating. However, technical issues and usability challenges were also observed during task execution. Despite the limitations identified, the study demonstrated the potential of targeted, technology-supported learning environments to meet diverse learner needs in inclusive classrooms. Further research is required to assess long-term learning outcomes and to explore higher levels of automation in adaptive content generation.

Keywords: Assistive Learning, Inclusive Education, Educational Technology, Tablet Interaction

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1006814

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