Presentation AI from Day One: Linguistic Control in a Reading Comprehension Tool for Absolute Beginners of Spanish more

Generative AI offers new opportunities for second-language absolute beginners, but maintaining linguistic control over AI-generated output remains a challenge. This presentation introduces and evaluates an AI-based tool designed to address this issue. The tool was introduced in a Spanish entry-level course after three weeks of instruction and is continuously updated to align with curricular progression. To date, it has provided on-demand reading comprehension activities to more than 700 learners at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (China). The system operates as an AI agent that integrates multiple workflows and does not require model training or fine-tuning. Instead, it builds on the authors’ previous research on prompting techniques for enforcing linguistic constraints. The presentation focuses on two areas. First, it outlines the tool’s design strategies for maintaining linguistic control, managing complexity, and increasing output variability. Second, it reports findings from an evaluation of 360 AI-generated texts produced across different curriculum stages and text types. Results show high levels of lexical and grammatical control, providing evidence that linguistic control can be scaffolded and sustained in AI tools for absolute beginners. Attendees will gain practical insights into designing AI systems for absolute beginner-level instruction without programming backgrounds, with applications transferable to other languages and proficiency levels.