Meet Sparky: The AI Partner Helping Seventh-Graders Strengthen Their Spoken Spanish

Seventh-graders in Peck’s Spanish program are getting a surprising new conversational partner this year: an AI chatbot named Sparky. Designed through Flint—Peck’s secure, school-supported AI platform—the tool is enhancing the language learning experience by providing an opportunity for students 
to practice spoken Spanish in a low-stakes, safe (students log in with their Google accounts, keeping them within the school-managed environment), and highly personalized way.

Upper School Spanish Teacher Chantal Rivers-Xin first experimented with Sparky, curious to see how AI might support authentic oral practice. “I started with seventh grade simply because it’s my largest class, and felt it was the most meaningful place to introduce an additional way to practice. I prompted Flint—which draws on Peck’s pedagogy and curricular resources uploaded by teachers—to essentially build a framework that supports students in authentic oral practice of the language. Ultimately, I created a chatbot that can converse with them in Spanish.”

The key, she emphasizes, is that students must speak their responses—not type them. As they talk, Sparky transcribes their words in Spanish, giving students an immediate sense of how their pronunciation is interpreted. “This is a nice component of the interaction,” she says. “As they’re speaking, they see how their words are communicated.”

Conversations evolve dynamically. Based on each student’s answer, Sparky asks new questions (such as "¿Cuántos años tienes?," or "¿Cuándo es tu cumpleaños?") and tailors its follow-ups to the student’s comfort and proficiency level.

“Similar to when students converse with [my co-teacher] Señora Montijo or me, this conversational partner meets them where they are,” she says. “It acts like a personal tutor that we can use in class.” After each session, Flint generates an analysis of each conversation, including transcripts and trends across the class. “It might say, ‘five students said “me llamo es” instead of “me llamo”—this might be a good thing to review,’” she explains.

“I then can take steps to present the information again, or in a different way.” For the students, reactions have been mixed—as is typical 
with new tools. “Some students were hesitant: ‘Am I saying this correctly? It’s going to type out what I say!’ And some took the ball and ran with it, jumping into in-depth conversations.” Rivers-Xin shares. But she already sees potential for using Sparky beyond class time. “If I assign this for homework, they could be at home practicing conversations independently, and then I can follow up with them in class.”

Nonetheless, she is aware of AI’s limitations. Some students initially wondered whether the chatbot “knows their personal information,” prompting conversations about data privacy and Peck’s tech safeguards. And Sparky’s detailed grammatical feedback—sometimes too technical for the intended purpose—reinforces the irreplaceable role of the teacher.

“As the teacher in the classroom, I know how to tailor feedback so it doesn’t feel overwhelming,” she says. “AI can’t do that as well as a human individual.”

For this year, Rivers-Xin plans to use Sparky only with seventh grade to help gauge growth from the beginning to the end of the year—and then explore ways to weave in the tool at other grade levels as well. (For example, she hopes to have her seventh graders “hear” the progression in their speaking 
and pronunciation when they move up to the eighth grade next year!).

She sees Sparky not as a teaching tool for new information or skills, but as another way to demonstrate proficiency. “AI can jump in for a quick exchange, but it can’t read a student’s confidence or confusion the way a teacher can,” she says. “The connections I build with students help them 
feel brave enough to try, make mistakes, and keep going—that’s something no chatbot can replace.”