Empowering Linguistic Diversity: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Education

Empowering Linguistic Diversity: Harnessing Artificial Intelligence in Education

Ms. Madhusmita Hazarika

Department of Education, Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva Viswavidyalaya, India

DOI: https://doi.org/10.51584/IJRIAS.2025.100800053

Received: 10 August 2025; Accepted: 20 August 2025; Published: 06 September 2025

ABSTRACT

India’s immense linguistic diversity poses profound challenges to traditional education, where language discrepancies can impact students in terms of academic engagement and outcomes. This linguistic diversity has a significant impact in the classrooms. Students from different linguistic backgrounds may feel like outsiders in a classroom because the instructions are not available in their mother tongues. Students often face problems with understanding instructions; it may lead to poor academic engagement as well as in their performance. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 provides clear policy guidelines for innovative solutions with an emphasis on mother tongue and multilingual education.

In this context integration of artificial intelligence into inclusive education has the potential to significantly help to break linguistic barriers in the classroom. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force with the potential to overcome linguistic barriers and promote genuine inclusion.

This article explores the role of artificial intelligence in promoting inclusive education for linguistically diverse students, highlighting its advantages, challenges, and potential solutions, as well as future directions for educators to bridge language gaps in the classroom.

Key Words: Linguistic Diversity, Inclusive Education, Artificial Intelligence (AI) etc.

INTRODUCTION

The landscape of Linguistic Diversity in India:

Language is the medium of communication means by which individuals communicate their thoughts with one another. It is one of the cultural strengths of every society. The richness of linguistic diversity lies in the multitude of ways people express themselves, shaped by their unique backgrounds.

India is known for its unique cultural backgrounds. It has rich cultural diversity, which makes diversity in its various aspects; linguistic diversity is one of them. It has more than 1,652 mother tongue and dialects (Census of India, 1961).

Linguistic diversity has a many great benefits such as cultural enrichment, inclusive society building, and strengthening unity in diversity etc. But it also has many challenges, especially in traditional classrooms.

In a traditional classroom students come from different linguistic backgrounds. In this context, diversification is easy to spot. Inclusive education broadly encompasses the teaching learning environment which is welcoming and supports all learners regardless of learning styles, backgrounds, abilities, disabilities etc. (Department of School Education, 2005). With this broad vision, inclusive education provides various strategies and infrastructure to learners.

The Transformative Potential of AI Inclusion:

In this era of modern technology, Artificial intelligence emerged as a grace of God, which has various benefits in different sectors of human life. Artificial intelligence has emerged as a transformative force in education, promising to revolutionize traditional teaching-learning methods (Pawar & Khose, 2024). Artificial intelligence tools such as chatbots are now-a-days widely integrated with schools for effective instruction and learning (Johri, 2023). Ai powered tools like chatbots, speech recognition software, speech-to-text and text- to-speech, translation applications, voice assistance etc have a great potential to help linguistically diverse students in learning. This article offers a thought-provoking exploration of the possibilities in inclusion of students with linguistic diversity that emerges from the intersection of Artificial intelligence and academia.

Artificial intelligence has emerged as an area that can revolutionize traditional teaching and learning methods.  This potential has provided an opportunity to meet various challenges for a country with many linguistic diversities like India.  Various artificial intelligence tools like Chatbots, speech recognition software ace translation Applications will help students to move forward with confidence and confidence by overcoming the language problems in the classrooms of India.

Linguistic Diversity and Education

 India celebrates its diversity and emphasizes unity among diversity. According to the 1991 Census the total number of mother tongues in India was 1576. Whereas the 2011 census reported that India has 22 official languages. Its educational institutions offer Hindi and English besides their mother tongue. As a result, students who come from different language backgrounds face various problems in learning.

Linguistic diversity is a powerful key for improving learning outcomes, national progress, etc. But without proper strategies and tools, it is not easy to include students with linguistic diversity to a traditional classroom. Linguistic diversity has significant challenges in the field of education, such as a mismatched medium of instruction with the mother tongue; may lead students to misconceptions of theories, challenges with academic discourse, difficulty in understanding instructions, poor academic outcomes, lower engagement etc.

Currently, the National Education Policy 2020 focuses on linguistic diversity. It emphasizes the promotion of all Indian languages and mother tongues. It gives focus on continuing the three-language formula in schools. Emphasizing bilingual education, it spreads the production of high-quality bilingual textbooks in Indian languages.

Ai-Based Tools for Linguistic Diverse Students:

NASA states that “Artificial intelligence refers to computer systems that can perform complex tasks normally done by human-reasoning, decision-making, creating etc.” In recent years, the integration of AI rapidly transforming education by offering different solutions across many aspects of learning. AI powered tools and platforms can provide personalized learning experiences tailored to individual student’s needs, adapt instructional materials and assessment to diverse learning styles and preferences (Pawar & Khase, 2024). Various Artificial intelligence tools enhance the quality of inclusive classrooms by helping students with linguistic diversity in various ways. The following table provides an overview of the AI Tools, their features and applications.

Table: AI Tools for Linguistic Inclusion: Features, Benefits and Challenges

These tools are useful for learners to create personalized and adaptive learning support to deal with language barrier. By using these AI-driven tools teachers can enhance the engagement as well as improve learning outcomes and better understanding of instruction. These tools can offer an enjoyable and effective learning environment to the students with linguistic diversity.

AI-driven educational tools have placed great emphasis on addressing the learning experience with contemporary issues by providing personalized, accessible and engaging support. These tools include machine translation and speech-to-text applications, adaptive learning systems, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, and multilingual chatbots and virtual tutors. They offer a variety of benefits, such as linguistic support, personalized instruction, instant feedback, and one-on-one instruction.  Some of these tool work with minimal internet connectivity making them suitable for remote and low-resource environments. By leveraging these technologies, educators expand educational access and make the learning experience more effective.

Empirical Evidence In India

Government Initiatives

Government initiatives in eliminate linguistic diversity “Bhashini” is noteworthy. “Bhashini” focuses on eliminating linguistic disparities by providing services in a total of 22 languages. With cutting-edge AI models and a “Voice-First” System, it provides important information to the citizens, bridging digital literacy and linguistic gaps. By providing AI-powered solutions it ensures that all citizens can access essential service regardless of language. “Bhashini” collaborates with 50 Government ministries and non-governmental organizations to solve problems through innovative AI and artificial intelligence.

Similarly, the “Udaan” project, an understanding between the Maharashtra government and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, aims to translate Science and engineering textbooks into many languages using AI.

Private Sector Innovations:

The private sector also plays a leading role in identifying and solving the problems related to language faced by students.

Among them, Google Read Along, an Al-powered reading app, uses speech recognition to provide learners with real-time feedback to children learning to read in their native language.   It allows children to read stories and receive guided help in various Indian languages.  This effectively bridges the learning gap between home and school among children.    The Uttar Pradesh state education department has used the tool to improve reading and pronunciation skills in Hindi and English for 10 million primary students.

Another private company, ConveGenius, installs Al-powered chatbots in 9-13 Indian languages to send quizzes and mini lessons to students’ phones.   These chatbots require a minimal internet connection and work on basic devices.  Which demonstrates how ubiquitous technologies such as SMS and WhatsApp can serve as educational platforms.  It can increase the reach of quality education for rural and low-income learners.

Benefits Of Using Ai For Linguistic Inclusion

AI has significant benefits, but it is most important to ensure that it must be used correctly. It empowers the tutoring system for personalized learning, helps in immediate assessment and feedback. There is a importance of carefully combining various AI technologies to maximize their advantages and meet specific educational demands. (Mananay, 2024). AI-powered translation tools can significantly enhance classroom inclusivity by supporting learners from diverse linguistic backgrounds. (Fitas, 2025). Machine translators break language barriers and guide learners to confidently communicate in classrooms. For example: applications such as Duolingo, where users receive most appropriate lessons for their language learning progress (Lee and Lee, 2024).

AI-driven language assistance enhances both comprehension and students’ participation. (Fitas,2025). AI-powered tutoring solutions can prove to be very helpful especially in the case of inclusive education by giving students engaging and adaptable learning experiences (Gupta & Kaul, 2024). AI-mediated instruction played a transformative role in cultivating intrinsic motivation, immersive learning experience, empowerment in self-regulated learning, tailored and personalized learning pathway, developing a positive learning environment and increasing active engagement of learners (Weight, 2023).

Challenges

Apart from the benefits of AI in inclusion, there are also some constraints in its use. It is crucial to address these challenges through responsible and ethical AI deployment, ensuring that AI interventions priorities equity, inclusivity. (Pawar & Khase, 2024). AI in inclusion of linguistic diverse students reveals some obstacles include restrictions on technology infrastructure, resource accessibility, the requirement for teacher preparation, worries about data security and privacy, and pedagogical alignment with AI-driven technologies (Mananay, 2024). Lack of various technological infrastructures, high cost, limited funding etc. hinder students from solving language problems through this AI. Financial barriers combined with lack of access to devices extends educational disadvantage. Lack of trained teachers also exacerbates these problems.

Data privacy, algorithmic bias and the digital divide raise concerns about equitable access (Gupta & Kaul, 2024). AI-driven tools may have issues in understanding the context of language use, leading to misconception, these scare for diverse dialects. It may have a lack of contextual and connotative understanding flattening of linguistic richness.

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

Integration of Artificial Intelligence has significant opportunities in fostering inclusivity, especially for linguistic diverse students. However, it comes with some constraints that require careful policy development techniques. Furthermore, teacher training and professional development are the uppermost windows, which support and enable teachers to effectively utilize AI-driven tools. It is an excellent means of combining AI and human intelligence rather than replacing one with another. It is essential to place a data privacy framework to protect the data of learners. To truly bolster the potential of AI, strong policies are needed to prevent algorithmic discrimination. Policy makers should focus on providing a variety of AI tools in the classrooms in view of India’s large linguistic diversity and on providing proper AI infrastructure in schools. It is important to keep in mind that, every school should have availability of Internet and Wi-Fi. AI tools must be adaptive, effective, and accessible to all learners. Regulatory bodies and frameworks should be established to ensure fairness and algorithmic bias. Collaboration between stakeholders, educators and policy makers is necessary to enrich inclusion in the context of linguistic diverse learners. Policies should give importance on mitigate algorithmic bias through data governance and enhance teacher preparedness through comparative training. AI is not a substitute for human educators; It is a powerful tool to enhance their capabilities. However, in order to move forward with this shift in educational paradigms, it is extremely necessary to focus on teacher training and professional development.

Further research is needed on the use of artificial intelligence in inclusion. Future research should study the need and benefits of artificial intelligence in inclusion in classrooms of learners with different disabilities and emphasize their appropriate use. Future research should explore the impact of AI-driven tools on students learning outcomes, AI integration on teacher-student relationships etc. More development and research are needed to generate AI models that can effectively understand and alter all religion dialects of India. This is an essential step for all the diverse linguistic populations of India.

CONCLUSION

Artificial intelligence has a great many potentials in education. It may be effective for Inclusion of students with linguistic diversity. In the context of linguistic diversity, India is a country where a significant number of languages are available. AI-driven tools have the potential to break this barrier for learners.

Along with its benefits, learners face challenges in various aspects such as information security issues, lack of cultural understanding, and dialect misconceptions when using it.  They can be put to proper use through teacher training, information security frameworks, and various artificial intelligence-driven tools that cater to different languages.

The proper use of artificial intelligence has the potential to promote inclusive education. Educators and policymakers should ensure that all students benefit from it.

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Web links:

1. https://bhashini.gov.in
2. https://censusindia.gov.in
3. https://convegenius.com
4. https://dsel.education.govt.in
5. https://translate.google.com
6. https://www.chatbot.com
7. https://www.education.govt.in
8. https://www.nasa.govt.in
9. https://readalong.google.com