Can AI Translation be the Terminator of Foreign Language Education?: An Answer from the Perspective of Cognitive Linguistics

Abstract

This paper examines the implications of AI translation technologies for foreign language education, emphasizing their potential to alter motivations for language learning fundamentally. English has served as the lingua franca, facilitating communication across language barriers in a globalizing world. However, AI-powered translation tools allow seamless, near-instant communication between speakers of different languages, potentially diminishing the practical necessity of learning foreign languages like English. Drawing on cognitive linguistics, the paper argues that foreign language education offers more than just communication skills—it cultivates new ways of construing the world. Language shapes thought processes and cultural perspectives, as demonstrated by differences in linguistic construal between Japanese and English. Through language learning, learners not only recognize these differences but also develop metacognitive abilities to reflect on their ways of construing the world. While AI translation enables accessibility and convenience, it risks obscuring subtle cultural and cognitive distinctions embedded in languages, i.e., invisible culture. Foreign language education, therefore, remains indispensable for fostering critical thinking, cultural empathy, and the ability to challenge the illusion of complete mutual understanding that AI translation might create. This paper stresses that language education in the AI era plays a crucial role in visualizing internal diversity of different language speakers.