Using Artificial Intelligence Tools in Teaching a Foreign Language in Higher Technical Institutions

Technological developments that take place nowadays and the accompanying process of digitalization in every area entail serious challenges for the whole society and for the system of education as its integral part. As a result, the teaching process nowadays, including foreign language teaching, involves using a wide range of technical and technological facilities. This paper analyses the possibilities of using digital intelligent technologies in university academic process with the focus on teaching a foreign language to students of higher education institutions specialising in the technical field. The work gives a review of existing online study courses, educational platforms, and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. The key features of several intelligent applications that are in common use are also outlined. The paper presents a description of a pedagogical experiment carried out in a technical university and aimed at estimating the effectiveness of integration of digital tools into the teaching and learning process. The outcomes of the experiment are evidence that using digital technologies enhances the learning activity and motivation of the students, with a positive impact on their lexical skills and overall performance, which as a result leads to achieving the ultimate goal of language learning, the communicative competence. The article also offers specific recommendations on the choice of electronic educational resources and outlines a number of problems encountered while using digital software.