Swiss educators rethink foreign language teaching because of AI
EDK President wants to rethink foreign language teaching because of AI
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Swiss educators rethink foreign language teaching because of AI
Silvia Steiner, President of the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK), has argued foreign language teaching needs to be rethought in light of artificial intelligence in an interview with the NZZ am Sonntag.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
EDK-Präsidentin will Fremdsprachenunterricht wegen KI neu denken
Original
Steiner has long been a proponent of early teaching of French in primary schools in German-speaking Switzerland. In the interview with the NZZ am Sonntag, she emphasised the importance of language skills for the cohesion of Switzerland.
However, she also conceded that AI is raising new questions about the best approach to language learning. “It’s no longer about stubbornly learning vocabulary, but rather about developing a feel for the language or assessing whether something that a computer programme translates for me is correct or incorrect,” said Steiner. She sees the implementation of these approaches as the task of teacher training colleges.
She takes a differentiated view of the fact that studies show that reading and writing skills in Switzerland are poor. “We can’t constantly cry out for digitalisation, install spelling programmes on all computers and then demand that children know exactly how to spell every word correctly,” said Steiner.
At the end of this year, Steiner will hand over the chairmanship of the Conference of Education Directors. The Zurich Director of Education was elected to office by the cantonal directors of education in 2016.
Translated from German by DeepL/jdp
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
What factors should be taken into account when inheriting Swiss citizenship abroad?
Should there be a limit to the passing on of Swiss citizenship? Or is the current practice too strict and it should still be possible to register after the age of 25?
Is your place of origin, your Heimatort, important to you?
Every Swiss citizen has a Heimatort, a place of origin, but many have never visited theirs. What’s your relationship with your Heimatort? What does it mean to you?
Over a quarter of Swiss Catholics consider leaving the church
This content was published on
In Switzerland 27% of Catholics have thought about leaving the church, according to a survey by the Sotomo research centre.
This content was published on
Following the Credit Suisse debacle, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is adapting its organisation.
This content was published on
The Swiss Armed Forces are training their fighter jets in Bern to fly from a civilian base. The exercise at Bern Airport will last until Wednesday.
Plans materialise for new particle accelerator in Geneva
This content was published on
Preparations for a huge new particle accelerator in Geneva have reached a milestone. After several years of work, a feasibility study for the project has now been finalised.
This content was published on
The value of frozen Russian assets in Switzerland currently stands at CHF7.4 billion ($8.4 billion), the Swiss government announced on Tuesday.
This content was published on
The number of business start-ups in Switzerland accelerated in the first three months of the year, with entrepreneurs being particularly dynamic in Central Switzerland, Basel and Geneva.
Most Swiss authorities want to ban Nazi symbols in public
This content was published on
A majority of Swiss political parties, cantons and associations want to ban the use and distribution of Nazi symbols in public.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.