AI AS A TOOL FOR INCLUSIVE BILINGUAL EDUCATION

Lizdelia Piñón believes AI won’t replace bilingual educators, but it can empower them

Bilingual educators often serve as a bridge for students navigating two worlds academically, linguistically,and culturally. But the demands placed on these educators continue to grow.Many are tasked with meeting rigorous academic standards, differentiating instruction for multiple language proficiency levels, and creating culturally relevant lessons, often without sufficient resources or support. In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a powerful partner to meet these challenges.

In the US, over five million emergent bilingual students (also referred to as English learners) attend public schools, accounting for about 10% of the total student population (NCES, 2023). Of these, more than 75% speak Spanish at home.

These students bring diverse cultural and linguistic assets to the classroom, yet they often face systemic barriers, including limited access to native-language assessments and insufficient individualized instruction. Educators play a critical role in helping emergent bilingual students acquire English while valuing and preserving their home languages. Teachers can significantly ease this task by integrating AI into bilingual education.

AI tools help teachers assess language proficiency, personalize instruction, translate content, and even simulate real-world language use—all while saving time and allowing for data-informed decision-making.

According to Wei (2023), AI-mediated language instruction significantly improved English learning outcomes, increased motivation, and fostered more self-regulated learning behaviors among students learning a second language. These findings point to AI’s potential not just as a supplemental tool but also as a transformative element in inclusive bilingual education.

AI applications can help address persistent equity gaps by making language instruction more personalized, efficient, and accessible. This is especially true for novice teachers or those unfamiliar with working with linguistically diverse student groups.

Emergent bilingual students enter school with varying levels of fluency in both English and their home languages. They also progress through language acquisition at different paces. AI can help teachers support this diversity in the following ways.

Personalized Learning Paths

AI-powered platforms can assess students’ current language-proficiency levels and recommend customized learning paths tailored to their interests, needs, and cultural backgrounds. These platforms group students by learning needs rather than just test scores and provide support in both English and their native languages.

For example, a bilingual teacher can use an AI chatbot to simulate conversation practice in English while the tool gives real-time feedback. At the same time, another tool can provide students with vocabulary support and grammar tips in Spanish. The result: Students are engaged at their own levels with scaffolding that builds both confidence and competence.

Language Assessment and Growth Tracking

AI tools can support bilingual educators by offering fast formative assessments in both English and students’ home languages. These tools can evaluate reading comprehension, oral fluency, vocabulary use, and even writing quality. Rather than relying on outdated annual test results, teachers can receive up-to- the-minute insights into student growth.

For instance, using an AI speech recognition platform like Elsa Speaks, ChatGPT, or Khan Academy AI tutor, a student can practice a recorded oral presentation. The tool evaluates pronunciation, pacing, and clarity and provides targeted practice suggestions. Teachers can track improvements over time and adjust instruction accordingly.

Translation and Communication

One of the most common barriers for schools serving emergent bilingual populations is communication with families. AI-powered translation and transcription tools like Google Translate, DeepL, and Microsoft Translator can assist teachers and administrators in translating materials, notes, and even parent–teacher conference dialogues into multiple languages.

These tools are not flawless. But when used thoughtfully and cross- checked, they can foster inclusion and improve family engagement.

Resource limitations are an all-too-common issue in bilingual education. Many districts lack materials in languages other than English, or they provide outdated curriculum with little cultural relevance. AI can help mitigate this by offering on-demand creation and adaptation of instructional materials

Smart Content Generation

AI tools like ChatGPT, MagicSchool.ai, Canva’s Magic Write, and Diffit can help bilingual educators generate bilingual quizzes, adapted reading passages, visuals, and culturally responsive lesson plans. Instead of starting from scratch, teachers can input a topic and receive a tailored draft that they can then refine to meet student needs.

For example, a bilingual teacher covering environmental science might ask an AI tool to generate a Spanish-language infographic explaining climate change using visuals and simplified vocabulary appropriate for middle schoolers.

Virtual Tutoring and Practice

AI-enabled virtual tutors offer consistent language practice and feedback opportunities that supplement classroom instruction. Many of these tools are free or low-cost and can be set up to reinforce vocabulary, comprehension, and conversation skills in both English and students’ home languages.

Whether through text-based conversations, voice-based simulations, or interactive games, students benefit from practice in a low-pressure environment, with immediate feedback to support learning.

Finding and Using Open Educational Resources (OER)

AI can also help educators find and adapt free open educational resources that are aligned with their curriculum and students’ language levels. Tools like Curipod or Diffit can translate and level texts for different grade bands, providing access to standards-aligned materials in multiple languages and formats.

Assessment is one of the most difficult areas in bilingual education due to the lack of grade-level native-language tools and appropriate accommodations. AI offers new possibilities for meaningful, accessible assessment.

Adaptive Testing

Using AI-powered adaptive testing, bilingual educators can assess content understanding while accounting for language proficiency and prior knowledge. Tools can adjust difficulty based on student responses, helping reduce frustration and test anxiety.

This is particularly useful for students who are literate in their home languages but still acquiring English, enabling them to demonstrate mastery without being penalized for their language development stages.

Speech Recognition

AI can assess oral language fluency through tools that evaluate pronunciation, tone, fluency, and pacing. These tools are especially valuable when time and staffing constraints make one-on-one speaking assessments challenging.

Caution should be exercised around potential AI biases, especially related to accent or dialect. Educators must critically analyze how AI evaluates students and ensure it doesn’t penalize culturally or linguistically diverse patterns of speech.

Natural Language Processing and Writing

Natural language processing (NLP)– based tools can analyze student writing samples for grammar, coherence, vocabulary, and fluency in both English and Spanish. Some platforms even highlight sentence-level structures and recommend areas for improvement.

Texas, for instance, is piloting the use of AI scoring for standardized writing assessments, using NLP to grade student responses. While controversial, this highlights the increasing role AI will play in assessment and why it’s critical for bilingual educators to understand and guide its use.

Data-Driven Decisions

AI analytics tools can compile assessment data and generate dashboards that show student growth across multiple domains. This enables bilingual teachers to monitor progress in real time, identify gaps, and provide targeted supports without waiting for quarterly benchmarks or yearly summative tests.

Despite the promise of AI, it’s essential to approach it with caution. Several challenges need to be addressed to ensure AI use in bilingual education is responsible, inclusive, and effective:

• Bias in algorithms: AI tools may reinforce linguistic or cultural biases. For example, pronunciation tools trained primarily on White, middle- class, monolingual speakers may misinterpret speech from bilingual or multilingual students.
• Cultural relevance: AI-generated materials can lack cultural context. Educators should review content for appropriateness and make edits as needed to ensure representation and respect for students’ backgrounds.
• Data privacy: Educators must ensure that student data is protected and used in compliance with privacy laws (e.g., FERPA, COPPA).
• Access gaps: Not all schools or families have equitable access to devices, the internet, or technical support. This makes digital equity a key consideration in AI integration.

These concerns should not deter educators from using AI but rather motivate districts and policymakers to build safeguards and provide professional development. The ethical use of AI must be collaborative, with input from educators, families, students, IT teams, and student advocates.

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