When Machado Meets Machine: Exploring AI in the Language Classroom
An interview with Dr Ester Rincon Calero, Senior Lecturer, Romance Studies
By Mehek Vora
In a world where artificial intelligence seems to be seen most often with STEM fields, it’s refreshing to talk about its often overlooked role in the humanities. This article presents Dr. Ester Rincón Calero, Senior Lecturer in Romance Studies at Tufts, who’s not only unafraid of AI in her classroom but eager to explore it, challenge it, and reflect on what it means for teaching and learning languages today.
What sparked her journey with AI? For Dr. Rincón Calero, it was a “double motivation.” First, a personal love of technology. She says. “I try to keep up with all the new technology I can find (although it is getting to be impossible!).” But the second reason came from a very real classroom dilemma: how to address students using translators or generative AI to write essays. Tools, while tempting, that were impacting how deeply they were actually learning the language.
Her first hands-on experience came through a workshop on using AI in language courses. From there, she began integrating AI in small but meaningful ways. “I find it very useful to break the ‘blank page’ syndrome,” she shares. For example, while creating two brand-new courses recently, she asked ChatGPT for sample syllabi. Not to follow them, but to see what not to do. “It helped me identify areas where I really had to add my personal touch.”
Last semester, Dr. Rincón Calero experimented with AI in two very different courses. In one, she used RumiDocs, an Academic Integrity & Artificial Intelligence platform piloted by Tufts EdTech. She used it to curb the reliance on generative AI by visualizing students’ writing processes.
On the other hand, it’s in her literature course where things got really creative. With more freedom, Dr. Rincón Calero made AI a central part of the course design. “I used AI to generate ideas for possible activities and creative assignments,” she explains. While the outputs were sometimes vague, the process served as an excellent brainstorm partner.
In that class, RumiDocs was repurposed as a digital reflective journal. Students could request grammar and vocabulary feedback from AI but had to correct the errors themselves. Why? “Most of our language learning happens when we correct the mistakes we make using the language,” she notes. “If you take away that correction, you miss a lot of learning opportunities.” Something she reiterated in the process of integrating AI and language learning.
Perhaps the most striking example of AI use in her class was a creative poetry assignment. Students could either write their own lyrics, adapt a poem into music, or use Suno, an AI music-generating tool, to create musical versions of a poem they were learning. The class even debated what Spanish poet Antonio Machado would think of a bachata remix of his work. “My students held very different opinions than me,” she laughs, “but it made for a very lively discussion.”
Dr. Rincón Calero is quick to point out both the benefits and limits of AI. “It can make what is considered busy work easier,” she says, “so we can dedicate our energy and unique skills to do more creative things.” Still, she emphasizes the importance of learning foundational skills first. “To use AI in a beneficial way requires a level of critical thinking that can only be acquired by learning first to do things completely on your own.”
She adds a healthy warning: “We must always be in control of the tool, not the tool in control of us.”
Her main message to the Tufts community? Don’t fear AI. “AI is not our enemy, and even if it is, it is better to get to know your enemy as well as you can.”
She encourages both students and faculty to explore AI not as a shortcut, but as a collaborative tool that still requires human thought, context, and creativity. “Guiding students by example may be the best way to start,” she offers. And with characteristic honesty, she adds a confession: “I tried to generate a full syllabus for my class using AI so I didn’t have to work so hard. It did not work! But the process helped me see how much I could improve it if I added my own time, skills, and effort. And that was rewarding.”