Keynote: Studying language change in the AI era: Will ChatGPT or a language corpus win the game?
Abstract: Learning foreign languages based on data collected in corpora (known as Data-Driven Learning) has a long tradition with numerous studies proving the beneficial effect of corpus consultations on increasing authenticity of language instruction, improving grammar discovery and vocabulary acquisition. The emergence of Web-as-Corpus and do-it-yourself concordancing approaches, together with facilitated access to ready-made corpora, enabled the incorporation of DDL techniques into language classrooms. However, with the Generative Artificial Intelligence tools revolutionising the language teaching landscape, a question needs to be asked whether and to what extent GenAI can fulfil a role equivalent (or complementary) to language corpora. The purpose of the presentation will be to explore the practical reality of Data-Driven Learning in the GenAI setting, employing various GPT tools (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok and Mistral) to illustrate analysis of changes in the English language.