Leveraging LANGUAGE: LLMs as Tools for Learning

While people commonly view generative AI as an idea generator, one of its greatest strengths is its exceptional language capabilities that can transform how we communicate across linguistic boundaries.

Drawing from her experience in linguistics and academic English teaching, Kelly Webb-Davies, who is a Lead Business Technologist at the AI Competency Centre, will show how AI can be used to develop ideas authentically in a person’s natural voice – whether informal, multilingual, or spoken – and then effectively translate these into formal academic and professional styles. This “digital translanguaging” approach creates inclusive educational environments where diverse linguistic identities are valued rather than suppressed. It is part of a vision where learning assessments in the classroom can focus on students’ abilities to develop ideas, instead of enforcing rigid language standards. Educators can also use AI to efficiently create tailored resources for varied linguistic and neurodiverse needs, harnessing AI’s linguistic potential, not to replace authentic expression, but to enhance and deepen it.

The event will start with tea, coffee and biscuits from 5pm, followed by the talk from 5.30.

About Kelly

Kelly Webb-Davies is a Lead Business Technologist at the AI and ML Competency Centre, and her academic background is in linguistics, with degrees from the University of Western Australia and the University of Melbourne. Before joining Oxford, she lectured on phonetics and phonology at the University of Bangor and was a Trinity DipTESOL-qualified English for Academic Purposes tutor and Technology Enhanced Learning and Language Lead at Bangor University International College, where working with international students and responding to their specific needs informed her practice of integrating AI productively to assist with their academic and linguistic proficiency.

Her focus is thoughtfully integrating AI into higher education in ways that enhance communication, reduce bias, and expand access to knowledge. She is particularly interested in how AI can be used to address the unique challenges of groups facing linguistic barriers and neurodivergence, creating more inclusive and accessible educational environments. She advocates for a balanced approach that maintains human involvement and fosters critical thinking alongside AI implementation and her work explores innovative ways to incorporate this philosophy into pedagogical and assessment design, ensuring that AI tools complement and enrich education.