AI-Powered Task Generation for Learners of English: Notes of Practical Experience

This article summarizes the experience gained in the course of using artificial intelligence (AI) to create practical and test assignments for students of English. The study examined foreign and domestic practice of using AI in higher education. In this article, the authors attempt to describe the strengths and weaknesses of text generative models of artificial intelligence today. The authors emphasize that for the productive use of AI in educational activities, it is necessary to take into account the fact that this tool is available not only to teachers (who create assignments), but also to students (who complete them), therefore, some types of assignments that proved efficient in the pre-digital era have lost their relevance and require significant revision. At the same time, classical tasks retain their value, but only when special conditions are created that exclude the possibility of their mechanical execution with the help of AI. In the new conditions, the teacher builds the educational process in such a way that the key value lies not in the final result, but in the intellectual process of achieving it. Otherwise, there is a risk of turning education into an absurd situation where algorithms actually “teach” other algorithms, bypassing the development of critical thinking in students. The authors come to the conclusion that the greatest pedagogical significance in the future will be acquired by those practical tasks that require all participants in the educational process to consciously and methodically justify the use of AI technologies. Such tasks should organically combine technological capabilities with the development of students’ genuine cognitive, analytical and creative skills