Dr. Brianne Orr-Álvarez, Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies | Director of Language Initiatives and Programs, Faculty of Arts
Courses: SPAN 101 Beginner’s Spanish 1, Arts One
Dr. Brianne Orr-Álvarez integrates Generative AI to support communicative and intercultural competence by helping students practise autonomously, experiment with expression and dialect, and reflect on how meaning is constructed across linguistic and cultural contexts. Her approach includes guided and scaffolded use of AI across core skills—reading, writing, listening, and speaking—and activities with clear instructions and sample prompts for pronunciation practice, as well as tasks that show diverse uses of AI to enhance collaboration in the classroom. All of this work is framed through discussions about integrity, ethics, and digital collaboration. core course skills.
She notes that integrating GenAI carefully takes much longer than expected and that students often find prompting and decision-making overwhelming. Her guidance for educators is to start early, start small, make integration predictable and consistent, and incorporate students’ perspectives and reflections throughout the process.
What motivated you to incorporate Generative AI into your teaching, and how does it reflect your discipline’s trends?
My motivation to incorporate Generative AI into my teaching practice grew out of my involvement in two large TLEF projects, both led by Associate Dean, Academic, Laurie McNeill: Our Cheating Hearts: Changing the Conversation through Academic Integrity Curriculum in First Year Arts Programs (2017-2019) and We’re Only Human: Educative Frameworks for Artificial Intelligence, Academic Integrity, and Writing in the Faculty of Arts (2023-).
My use of AI aims to support communicative and intercultural competence by enabling students to practice autonomously, experiment with expression and dialect, and reflect on how meaning is constructed across linguistic and cultural contexts and even levels of the Spanish curriculum. At the same time, it is pivotal that our use of such tools—either in or out of the classroom—be framed alongside discussions about integrity, ethics, and digital collaboration, which are central to a humanities-centered approach to university-level education.
How have you engaged students in using Generative AI for learning, and how have they responded?
I engaged students in general discussions on Generative AI at first to gauge their familiarity with specific tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft CoPilot. I quickly learned that even though many of us assume that our students are using everything and anything they can get their hands on, this simply is not the case. Some students are very resistant to using AI, particularly when it involves their academic work, for concerns related to anything from accidental cheating to privacy and even the impact on the environment.
Student attitudes toward AI vary widely—from enthusiastic adoption to strong resistance based on ethical, privacy, and environmental concerns.
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Guided AI Integration in the Classroom – AI Pronunciation Coach
I occasionally integrate guided use of GenAI tools in the classroom to show students how to use them effectively as independent study aids within our course goals and proficiency level. To give some context, our Spanish courses typically enroll around 50 students with one instructor and one TA per section, a ratio that limits opportunities for individualized pronunciation practice and pointed feedback.
To address this, I designed an activity with clear instructions and sample prompts that students could input into ChatGPT 3.5 or Microsoft Copilot, tools approved for cautious use at UBC. After completing the pronunciation task, students shared and reflected on their experiences, as well as any AI-generated activities or tips. This approach allowed them to choose tools and tasks aligned with their interests and needs, while also positioning them as co-contributors of knowledge by inviting them to share insights and materials with the class.
Creative Collaboration with AI-Generated Images
In addition to using GenAI tools for independent language practice, I also craft activities that show diverse uses of the tools and enhance collaboration in the classroom. One aspect of AI that is great for language classrooms is its capacity to generate images based on a prompt or series of descriptive words and phrases. For a unit on workplace-related vocabulary activities, I ask students to input the following prompt into the GenAI tool of their choice (ChatGPT 3.5 or Microsoft Copilot) – “Create an image showing 5-6 people with names doing activities related to working in an office—working on a computer, writing, sending emails, making decisions, having a coffee, etc.”
Once the image is generated, students are invited to upload it to Canvas Discussions prior to the next class period. Then, as an in-class activity, I invite students to choose two or three of the images they and their classmates had previously uploaded to Canvas discussions and take turns describing in Spanish what different individuals are doing in the image. As a follow-up, I invite volunteers to record some of their observations on the whiteboard, and then we use their examples to ease us into a deeper dive into the lesson on workplace vocabulary and grammar.
What guidance do you give students when bringing AI tools into your teaching?
Frame with Integrity
I think that if AI tools are framed with discussions around integrity and ethical engagement, they can be a great way to help language students become more autonomous learners by seeking out additional guidance and practice with skills like pronunciation, speaking and listening, and even reading and writing.
Scaffold Throughout
The key to ethical engagement, I’ve found, is to scaffold discussions and use-case scenarios centered on core course skills and tools throughout the semester so that both instructors and students learn and build together a careful dialogue-centered approach to working with AI in ways that are considered appropriate for the course context and students’ levels.
What opportunities or challenges have emerged when using AI tools in your teaching?
I definitely underestimated how long it would take to carefully and conscientiously integrate GenAI tools into my teaching and learning practices and contexts.
I designed an activity that I thought would take one 50-minute class period to get through, and it took me two full weeks to mull through it with students. I find that students like playing with the tools, but as soon as they realize how carefully one must prompt the machine to receive the desired result, it becomes daunting and even overwhelming. Add to that the stress of considering whether or not you are overusing tools toward academic ends, and it is very easy to throw in the towel and give up altogether.
For this reason, my classrooms are not AI-required they are AI-optional. I always offer students the option to pursue specific learning activities with or without AI and turn their personal and collaborative decisions into opportunities for sharing perspectives and experiences. This way, we all learn from our choices and are able to act with more knowledge than doubt in future situations.
What advice would you give to other educators interested in integrating Generative AI into their teaching?
My advice would be to start early, start small, make integration predictable and consistent, and integrate students’ perspectives and reflections throughout the process.
Start Early
Begin conversation within the first two weeks of a semester
Start Small
Integrate only 1-3 learning activities per semester
Make it Consistent
Ensure predictable and optional integration
Include Reflection
Prompt students to justify decisions and share experiences
One of the mistakes I made early on was to want to try everything and integrate AI into all aspects of teaching and learning at all levels of the Spanish curriculum, even prior to discussing my choices with students. Today, I aim to start the conversation early—within the first two-weeks of a semester, when students are still figuring their schedules out and it is hard to really dive into the material anyway—and make sure that it is clear from the start that use of AI tools is an option, but not an imposition. I now only integrate 1-3 learning activities a semester that showcase how the tool could work in my discipline and always offer options for those who are not interested in engaging with AI at this time. The reflection on use piece is key in this process because the students who choose (or not) to use AI are prompted to justify their decision and outline what worked or not so that we all learn from their experience and perspective.
What’s next for you in terms of teaching and learning with AI?
I will continue developing activities for the We’re Only Human Project, with a stronger emphasis on scaffolded use of AI across the Spanish curriculum. This work will begin with conversations about students’ prior knowledge, experience, and interest in GenAI, and will incorporate guided use of these tools to support core skills – reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Central to this approach is critical reflection, where students consider AI’s limitations in addressing human-centered aspects of communication such as intercultural awareness and social cues.
At the same time, the heightened attention on AI seems to have made students crave human-to-human interaction more than ever. This past semester, they arrived eager to speak, listen, and learn with peers in ways I have not seen since before the pandemic.
My hope is that students will continue to see AI as one tool among many – not as a replacement for genuine dialogue, collaboration, and connection.