Found in Translation: Speaking the Same Language about GenAI to Support Multilingual Users
Found in Translation: Speaking the Same Language about GenAI to Support Multilingual Users
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Multilingual users move across languages and cultures in ways that most AI systems are not built to handle. This workshop brings together researchers, school administrators, educators, and speech-language pathologists to rethink how generative AI can better support multilingual communities.
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Are you an educator, technologist, clinician, or researcher who is keenly aware of the challenges multilingual individuals face across educational, medical, social, and digital spaces—and want to make a meaningful change?
Do you believe technology should reflect the cultural and linguistic realities of the people it serves, not flatten them?
Do you have ideas to address real-world challenges multilingual individuals face—but don’t yet have the collaborators, tools, creative process, or resources to bring them to life?
If your answer is yes, then the Found in Translation workshop is the right space for you.
Workshop Objectives
Workshop Objectives
To create an interdisciplinary space for collaboration and generating ideas;
To integrate cultural values into the conceptualization of multilingual GenAI technology;
To ideate solutions for challenges multilingual users face when interacting with conversational interfaces;
4. To create storyboards of GenAI technology intentionally designed to support multilingual users;
5. To form interdisciplinary teams for future projects.
Workshop Details
Workshop Details
Format: One-day, full-day interactive workshop
Participants: Approximately 15–20
Call for Papers Open June 2026
Who Should Join
Who Should Join
We are bringing together people who work with language, learning, and technology across different settings.
Researchers in AI, HCI, linguistics, or education
School administrators supporting multilingual students
Educators and classroom teachers
Speech-language pathologists working with multilingual children and families
Designers and developers of AI or educational tools
Graduate students in related fields
If your work touches multilingual communities, you belong in this conversation.
Why This Work Matters
Why This Work Matters
Multilingual users are one of the fastest-growing populations worldwide, yet most generative AI (GenAI) systems and large language models (LLMs) are typically designed for monolingual use.
Current conversational interfaces struggle with multilingual conversations when users move fluidly between native and second languages, and they rarely integrate the cultural values that shape everyday exchanges.
While GenAI tools are transforming the way we communicate, perspectives from different disciplines are essential to adequately address these challenges. At present, these perspectives remain fragmented.
This workshop aims to address this gap by creating an interactive space to bring these perspectives together.
Participants will:
Engage in a cultural/multilingual simulation to reflect on how cultural values shape communication
Identify and discuss challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration
Create storyboards of new approaches for designing conversational multilingual interfaces
What We’ll Do
What We’ll Do
This is not a lecture. It’s a working session.
Engage in a cultural and multilingual simulation
Identify where current AI systems fall short
Work across disciplines to generate ideas
Create storyboards of improved AI interactions
Share and refine ideas with others
What You’ll Take Away
What You’ll Take Away
An affinity group or community that includes people from diverse disciplines and backgrounds interested in designing and developing GenAI technologies to support multilingual users.
A clearer understanding of how multilingual users interact with AI — and where current tools fall short.
Ideation of potential solutions that integrate cultural values into the conceptualization phase of GenAI technologies.
New collaborators across fields, ready to carry the work forward.
Low-fidelity prototypes or storyboards that reflect real-world scenarios in which multilingual learners can meaningfully interact with GenAI technologies.
Contribution to a shared zine — all workshop storyboards will be published on the workshop website, with plans for follow-up collaboration and a potential manuscript submission to SIGDIAL or a related venue.
Join the Workshop
Join the Workshop
All storyboards will be published as zine on the workshop website and serve as a springboard for continued collaboration, including follow-up meetings and a working on a manuscript for publication in CHI/HCI venues.
We anticipate 15-20 participants.
Organizers
Organizers
Yolanda A. Rankin
(Emory University)
An expert in HCI research, she has over 20 years of experience establishing equitable design practices that position marginalized populations as agents of knowledge and collaborators in the design process of educational technology. She will co-facilitate the workshop.
Ligia Gómez Franco
(Ball State University)
A Spanish/English multilingual developmental and educational psychologist and a native of Bolivia, she maintains strong connections with her community in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. She has worked for over 10 years with Hispanic families, multilingual children, and schools in Boston, Arizona, and currently in Indiana. She will co-facilitate the workshop.
Sulare Telford Rose (University of the District of Columbia)
A Spanish/English multilingual school-based SLP and researcher, and a native of South America, she has over 12 years of experience working with multilingual children and their newcomer (immigrant) families to support language development. She has worked with children in Baltimore, MD; Washington, D.C.; and the surrounding area. She will co-facilitate the workshop.
Jinho D. Choi
(Emory University)
A leading researcher in Natural Language Processing and Conversational AI with over 100 peer-reviewed publications in top-tier venues. His team, Emora, won the Amazon Alexa Socialbot Grand Challenge in 2020, achieving the highest score in the competition’s history. His current research focuses on applying these technologies to education and mental healthcare domains. He will co-facilitate the workshop.
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