Papers by Silvia Pokrivcakova
Addressing the challenges of teaching foreign languages in higher education , 2024
Journal of language and cultural education, Dec 1, 2023
Even though artificial intelligence (AI) is no new occurrence, with its beginnings dating back to... more Even though artificial intelligence (AI) is no new occurrence, with its beginnings dating back to the 1950s, its use has gained popularity worldwide, especially in recent years, and its presence and importance has grown in many areas of human lives, including education. Surveys conducted internationally have found generally positive attitudes of university students towards artificial intelligence (AI) and its inclusion into various fields of research and study. However, only few research probes have been conducted among students of philology and future language teachers. No such research has been conducted among university students or pre-service EFL teachers in Central Europe. This paper aims to fill this gap in educational research knowledge, as knowing teachers' and teacher students' attitudes towards AI can be a key factor in the success or failure of applying AI in education. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the level of knowledge and dominant attitudes towards AI in general, AI in learning/teaching EFL and the inclusion of AI in the teacher training curriculum among pre-service EFL teachers in Slovakia. To collect data from the respondents, a cross-sectional survey in the form of a KAP questionnaire was conducted in November-December 2022. 137 pre-service English language teachers responded to a pre-tested online questionnaire consisting of 19 closed-ended (5-point Likert scale) items and one open-ended question. Slovak EFL pre-service teachers were equally interested (38.67%) and uninterested (39.42%) in the ongoing discussion about AI in education. Overall, they self-reported having no (61.31%) or unsatisfactory (21.17%) understanding of the basic computational principles of AI. On the other hand, they were significantly more satisfied with their knowledge of AI-based applications for EFL teaching, which they considered adequate (35.04%). Nevertheless, almost half of the students (45.25%) rated their knowledge as inadequate. It was therefore encouraging to learn that 64.24% of the respondents agreed that AI education should be included in their university curriculum and had predominantly positive expectations of AI and its application in education. 63.50% of them agreed with the statement that AI will improve education in general (compared to only 18.98% who disagreed). They shared a predominantly positive attitude towards the incorporation of AI into EFL and showed their optimistic expectations regarding the impact of AI on teaching and learning English as a foreign language. Slovak EFL preservice teachers did not express any concerns about the future of their profession. However, a majority of them (53.28%) agreed that EFL teachers might lose some of their skills when using AI in their practice and a significant number (42.33%) feared that AI would make EFL teaching less personal. These findings are consistent with previous research conducted internationally. Key words: AI, attitudes towards AI, pre-service EFL teachers, AI-powered foreign language education, AIpowered EFL teacher training 1 Introduction Over the past few decades (since the 1950s), artificial intelligence (AI) has received unprecedented attention and is seen as one of the triggers of the fourth industrial revolution (Quiang, 2018). Among the fields that have undergone a profound transformation with the integration of AI is higher education. The impact of AI on higher education is multifaceted, and some developments, like the opening of AI-based language models such as ChatGPT to the public, open up a new era of possibilities and can lead to ground-breaking changes not only in teaching and assessment methods. Based on the conclusions of numerous institutional, national and international analyses (e.g.
EDULEARN13 Proceedings, 2013
Chapters on selected genres of literature for children and juvenile readers written in English
World literature studies, 2011
The article is an attempt to approach the poetry of Emily Dickinson through some of the principle... more The article is an attempt to approach the poetry of Emily Dickinson through some of the principles of cognitive literary studies. In the first part the focus is placed on the first approaches to literary cognition in Slovak literary theory and on the nature of cognitive literary studies. The second part is a reading of some of the poems of the nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson from the point of view of traditional criticism as well as cognitive literary studies, with a particular emphasis on the way the writer cognises the world around herself. Her poetic vision is presented as iconic expressions of mental experiences aimed at gnomic compression of the final image. She is characterised as a poet who " thinks through images " and her poetry as a fusion of the conceptual and figurative search for the truth.
Language, Literature, and Culture in Education 2023, 2023
Creating multimodal and multimedia projects is one of the important competencies that should be ... more Creating multimodal and multimedia projects is one of the important competencies that should be part of quality education in any field. English language teacher training is no exception, all the more so because future teachers will one day develop this competence in their pupils themselves. This paper presents the results of an action research conducted during two semesters of the academic year 2022-23. The aim of the research was to verify the possibilities of involving multimedia project production (short video films) as a specific form of semester output in some courses aimed at teaching Anglophone literatures and cultures. The results of the research confirmed that the creation of multimedia projects is a promising and widely welcomed form of semester output by students. The qualitative analysis of the projects pointed out to some aspects that need to be added in the future (initial preparation of students to work with different applications and technical means for creating and editing video materials, involvement of students in the evaluation of the projects, public presentation of the projects, etc.) or modified (e.g., more precise specification of the final multimedia project, more precise evaluation criteria).
Keywords: multimedia projects, teacher training, teaching English as a foreign language, digital competences, student video film
Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 2019
in Prague. Her main field of scientific interest is historical grammar of Czech language, and Cze... more in Prague. Her main field of scientific interest is historical grammar of Czech language, and Czech language didactics. Solver of several grant projects and member of journal editorial boards. Her most significant works: Čeština a škola-úryvky skrytých dějin and Praporu věren i ve ztraceném boji: Vladimír Šmilauerživot a dílo filologa.
ICERI proceedings, Nov 1, 2022
ICERI proceedings, Nov 1, 2022
Education and New Developments 2022 – Volume 2, Jun 17, 2022
For centuries, print dictionaries were the primary assisting tool for those who needed to find th... more For centuries, print dictionaries were the primary assisting tool for those who needed to find the meaning of an unknown word or translate something from or to a target language. These days, various technological solutions are available, many of them online and free of charge. Online machine translators (OMTs) are used as dictionaries to look up individual words or translate texts of various lengths. OMTs have changed the situation in foreign language education, too. The paper aims to discover how OMTs are perceived and used by non-native speaking university students of English in teacher-training and philology programmes and identify possible differences. First, the paper summarizes the main directions in the ever-growing research on perceiving OMTs in foreign language education. Second, it presents partial results of the online survey conducted among future teachers of English and students of English philology (English language and culture). The results proved that both groups of respondents use a wide range of OMTs, with Google Translate being the most popular. In general, respondents showed positive attitudes towards OMTs and were satisfied with their outcomes; however, teacher trainees were more critical when the quality of translations was considered and they were more aware of the need for post-editing. Future teachers of English also showed more reserve for using OMTs as means of FL learning (learning new vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, reading, writing, translating). Only a tiny part of respondents (all future teachers) saw OMTs as a threat to effective foreign language learning. The results proved a more "conservative" perception of OMTs by future teachers of English (which may explain why some practising teachers ban using OMTs in their classrooms, fearing that their students could become dependent on them). Students of English philology (English language and culture) manifested less critical attitudes towards OMT in all observed categories. They focused more on speed and comfort than the quality of translation. This result points to the need to instruct students on using OMTs properly (including post-editing) to get the best possible translating and learning outcomes. The paper presents partial results of the research project KEGA 019TTU-04/2021 Integrating new digital tools into philological research and education sponsored by the Slovak Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport.
CLIL in Foreign Language Education: e-textbook for foreign language teachers, 2015
This is the chapter from the e-textbook for EFL teacher trainees entitled CLIL in Foreign Languag... more This is the chapter from the e-textbook for EFL teacher trainees entitled CLIL in Foreign Language Education (Nitra: UKF, 2015). It briefly summarizes the current situation in applying CLIL at Slovak schools. Its aim is to provide readers – future CLIL teachers with data, hand-in facts and references that can be useful when starting with CLIL in Slovakia. These data and facts include e.g. references to schools which apply CLIL, the list of accredited courses of continual education on CLIL, the review of teaching manuals and handbooks, as well as the review of works which have published examples of good practice and first-hand experience with CLIL.
CALL and Foreign Language Education: e-textbook for foreign language teachers, 2014
This is the chapter from e-textbook for EFL teacher trainees entitled CALL and Foreign Language E... more This is the chapter from e-textbook for EFL teacher trainees entitled CALL and Foreign Language Education (Nitra: UKF, 2014). It is the first of the series of three textbooks/methodological manuals for teacher-training courses which came/are going come to existence as a results of the project KEGA 036UKF-4/2013 “Creating textbooks and multimedia courses for a new study programme as a means of internationalization of foreign language teacher training” funded by the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. The textbook is accompanied by the interactive Moodle course.
CALL and Foreign Language Education: e-textbook for foreign language teachers, 2014
This is a chapter from the e-textbook for EFL teacher trainees entitled CALL and Foreign Language... more This is a chapter from the e-textbook for EFL teacher trainees entitled CALL and Foreign Language Education (Nitra: UKF, 2014). It is the first of the series of three textbooks/methodological manuals for teacher-training courses which came/are going come to existence as a results of the project KEGA 036UKF-4/2013 “Creating textbooks and multimedia courses for a new study programme as a means of internationalization of foreign language teacher training” funded by the Ministry of Education of the Slovak Republic. The textbook is accompanied by the interactive Moodle course.
CLIL in Foreign Language Education: e-textbook for foreign language teachers, 2015
INTED proceedings, Mar 1, 2022
Generally, developing and improving foreign language conversation skills are the most challenging... more Generally, developing and improving foreign language conversation skills are the most challenging aspects of foreign language education. The situation of many foreign language teachers and learners has been made even more complicated and challenging after the Covid-19 outbreak, which caused a sudden move to distance learning environments. Although schools can choose from a wide range of modern digital technologies, not all are suitable for supporting or even replacing a spontaneous conversation in the class. The paper explores the use of chatbots as a possible solution for developing conversational skills (both in an oral and written form) of learners of English as a foreign language.
Chatbots (chatting robots or conversational robots) are usually used in commercial situations (customer services). Recently, it has been questioned how effective chatbots can be in assisting non-native English language teachers as tools for simulated conversation. While learners often do not have the opportunity to converse with the teacher or classmates as much as they need, chatbots are available at any time, and they can “tolerate” the learner´s pace and allow learners to keep track of their own performance over time.
The paper publishes the results of the survey administered among 362 future teachers of English (all of them were university students and non-native speakers of English) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Nearly 41% of the respondents did not have any (conscious) experience with chatbots before participating in the research. 23.8% of respondents had some experience with educational chatbots, and 21.8% of respondents had some experience conversing with commercial chatbots. Generally, the respondents evaluated their conversation with Mitsuku the chatbot as fluent (62.43%), entertaining (58.83%), linguistically accurate (72.92%), and enjoyable (94.47%). However, only 35.63% of respondents perceived their conversation with the chatbot as natural. Consequently, 49.2% of respondents would not use chatbots in their future English classes, and only 35.9% of respondents would integrate chatbots in their teaching decidedly. Compared to the research results published abroad, the results pointed out the possible gaps in how well the Czech and Slovak teacher trainees are informed about the modern digital tools available for school or independent English language learning and their expectations regarding the development of conversation skills are. In addition, the results showed the areas where teacher training may be extended and updated.
INTED proceedings, Mar 1, 2022
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Papers by Silvia Pokrivcakova
Keywords: multimedia projects, teacher training, teaching English as a foreign language, digital competences, student video film
Chatbots (chatting robots or conversational robots) are usually used in commercial situations (customer services). Recently, it has been questioned how effective chatbots can be in assisting non-native English language teachers as tools for simulated conversation. While learners often do not have the opportunity to converse with the teacher or classmates as much as they need, chatbots are available at any time, and they can “tolerate” the learner´s pace and allow learners to keep track of their own performance over time.
The paper publishes the results of the survey administered among 362 future teachers of English (all of them were university students and non-native speakers of English) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Nearly 41% of the respondents did not have any (conscious) experience with chatbots before participating in the research. 23.8% of respondents had some experience with educational chatbots, and 21.8% of respondents had some experience conversing with commercial chatbots. Generally, the respondents evaluated their conversation with Mitsuku the chatbot as fluent (62.43%), entertaining (58.83%), linguistically accurate (72.92%), and enjoyable (94.47%). However, only 35.63% of respondents perceived their conversation with the chatbot as natural. Consequently, 49.2% of respondents would not use chatbots in their future English classes, and only 35.9% of respondents would integrate chatbots in their teaching decidedly. Compared to the research results published abroad, the results pointed out the possible gaps in how well the Czech and Slovak teacher trainees are informed about the modern digital tools available for school or independent English language learning and their expectations regarding the development of conversation skills are. In addition, the results showed the areas where teacher training may be extended and updated.
Keywords: multimedia projects, teacher training, teaching English as a foreign language, digital competences, student video film
Chatbots (chatting robots or conversational robots) are usually used in commercial situations (customer services). Recently, it has been questioned how effective chatbots can be in assisting non-native English language teachers as tools for simulated conversation. While learners often do not have the opportunity to converse with the teacher or classmates as much as they need, chatbots are available at any time, and they can “tolerate” the learner´s pace and allow learners to keep track of their own performance over time.
The paper publishes the results of the survey administered among 362 future teachers of English (all of them were university students and non-native speakers of English) in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Nearly 41% of the respondents did not have any (conscious) experience with chatbots before participating in the research. 23.8% of respondents had some experience with educational chatbots, and 21.8% of respondents had some experience conversing with commercial chatbots. Generally, the respondents evaluated their conversation with Mitsuku the chatbot as fluent (62.43%), entertaining (58.83%), linguistically accurate (72.92%), and enjoyable (94.47%). However, only 35.63% of respondents perceived their conversation with the chatbot as natural. Consequently, 49.2% of respondents would not use chatbots in their future English classes, and only 35.9% of respondents would integrate chatbots in their teaching decidedly. Compared to the research results published abroad, the results pointed out the possible gaps in how well the Czech and Slovak teacher trainees are informed about the modern digital tools available for school or independent English language learning and their expectations regarding the development of conversation skills are. In addition, the results showed the areas where teacher training may be extended and updated.