Feedback in foreign language teaching: from information technologies to artificial intelligence

The modern stage of technological advancement is characterized by the dynamic development of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and their integration into education. Of the several dozen artificial intelligence technologies used in various spheres of human activity, the most widely used in education are: a) machine learning, b) natural language processing, c) data science and d) intelligent tutoring system. On their basis, artificial intelligence tools are created, which have significant language teaching potential and in many ways change the traditional roles of the teacher and learners in the educational process. However, it should be noted that the integration of artificial intelligence technologies into education in general and foreign language teaching in particular is currently at the initial stage. Educators and learning designers conduct pilot studies investigating the abilities of specific artificial intelligence tools in the formation of foreign language aspects or the development of learners' foreign language communication skills. At the same time, the limited number of empirical research studies does not allow us to talk about the systematicity and comprehensiveness of foreign language teaching based on artificial intelligence technologies. One of the key differences between artificial intelligence technologies and modern information and communication technologies is their AI’s ability to provide a much wider range of feedback. It is owing to this advantage of artificial intelligence that innovative methods of teaching a foreign language will be based, creating new additional conditions for students to master a foreign language and raising the learning process to a new level in terms of the quality of solving learning tasks. However, the consideration of the types of feedback provided by AI tools has not been the subject of separate research, which determined the importance of this study. The aim of the study is to identify the types of feedback provided to learners by artificial intelligence technologies for the subsequent development of teaching methods (teaching technologies and/or typologies of tasks and assignments) based on them. The definition of the types of feedback provided to users by artificial intelligence tools was based on a review and analysis of research in the field of pedagogy and foreign language teaching methods. The sample of sources included research articles and reviews published in academic journals indexed in Scopus and Web of Science (Q1 and Q2), as well as Russian academic journals, included in the list of the Higher Attestation Commission of the Russian Federation (Categories 1 and 2) (pedagogical sciences). The following aspects of teaching methods were the subject of study in the review and analysis of academic papers: a) the artificial intelligence tool used for receiving feedback; b) the target audience of learners; c) the purpose of interaction with artificial intelligence; d) the form of activities; e) the type of feedback used. As a result, the following six types of feedback provided by artificial intelligence tools were identified in this study: a) educational and social; b) information and reference; c) methodological; d) analytical; e) evaluative; f) conditionally creative feedback.