Generative AI as Conversational Partner: Developing Critical Interactional Competence in Language and Culture Learning – Dr David Dai and Professor Zhu Hua (UCL)

Using GenAI to practise language and cultural learning comes with risks. Analysing data from a physiotherapist using ChatGPT to roleplay interactions with patients from different cultural backgrounds, research findings reveal how AI produces stereotypical, essentialised cultural representations while engaging in sycophantic agreement with the user. Meanwhile, the user reacts differently to the AI precisely because they know it is not a human. This poses some fundamental questions about learner psychology, agency and the nature of the intercultural dimension in AI-modulated learning environments. The researchers introduce the concept of Critical Interactional Competence (CritIC) as a necessary skill: the ability to engage reflexively and critically within the interaction itself, drawing on their own lived experiences and subjectivities. 

Key words: Intercultural competence; Critical Interactional Competence (CritIC); Generative AI; Cultural stereotyping; Language and cultural learning; Interaction analysis. 

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