Clause Encounters of the Third Kind: Can LLMs Replace Language Teachers?

arXiv:2608.16286v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: While various organizations now actively encourage LLM use in classrooms, we still lack rigorous, systematic evaluations of how well these models actually perform the fundamental tasks of language pedagogy. This paper examines whether state-of-the-art LLMs can deliver the kind of corrective feedback and methodological explanations that language learners need. The study tests multiple large language models on their ability to identify, correct, and explain common learner mistakes in English, by systematically varying model parameters to investigate how these technical adjustments affect output quality, pedagogical clarity, and consistency, along with using retrieval-augmented generation to query methodological data. The evaluation employs automated metrics (GLEU, BERTScore) but also human expert judgments to capture dimensions that purely computational measures miss: linguistic nuance, cultural sensitivity, and instructional appropriateness. While models demonstrate impressive surface-level correction abilities, their explanations often lack the terminological and domain knowledge that effective language teaching requires, suggesting that current enthusiasm for AI-assisted language learning may be outpacing our understanding of these systems' actual pedagogical competence.

Title:Clause Encounters of the Third Kind: Can LLMs Replace Language Teachers?

Abstract:While various organizations now actively encourage LLM use in classrooms, we still lack rigorous, systematic evaluations of how well these models actually perform the fundamental tasks of language pedagogy. This paper examines whether state-of-the-art LLMs can deliver the kind of corrective feedback and methodological explanations that language learners need. The study tests multiple large language models on their ability to identify, correct, and explain common learner mistakes in English, by systematically varying model parameters to investigate how these technical adjustments affect output quality, pedagogical clarity, and consistency, along with using retrieval-augmented generation to query methodological data. The evaluation employs automated metrics (GLEU, BERTScore) but also human expert judgments to capture dimensions that purely computational measures miss: linguistic nuance, cultural sensitivity, and instructional appropriateness. While models demonstrate impressive surface-level correction abilities, their explanations often lack the terminological and domain knowledge that effective language teaching requires, suggesting that current enthusiasm for AI-assisted language learning may be outpacing our understanding of these systems' actual pedagogical competence.

Computation and Language (cs.CL)

arXiv:2608.16286 [cs.CL]

(or arXiv:2608.16286v1 [cs.CL] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.16286 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

Oxford Intersections: AI in Society (Oxford, online edn, Oxford Academic, 20 Mar. 2025 - )

https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198945215.003.0252 Focus to learn more DOI(s) linking to related resources

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Clause Encounters of the Third Kind: Can LLMs Replace Language Teachers?

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