Generative artificial intelligence and foreign language learning

Abstract

Prior studies exploring teachers’ perceptions of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini have signaled tensions between instructors’ perceptions of GenAI’s usefulness and their beliefs regarding its ethicality. The current study furthers this line of inquiry, examining issues of ethics and utility by focusing specifically on teachers of languages other than English. Using a sequential mixed-methods design, this study employed a survey to understand language instructors’ ( N  = 101) perceptions of the ethicality of GenAI tool use in higher education, along with their perceptions of the usefulness of GenAI for supporting second language (L2) learning. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted with six teachers to further understand participants’ survey responses, with some teachers sharing additional artifacts (e.g., course policies regarding GenAI). The findings suggest that most teachers (92.1%) believe GenAI tools are ethical if used for specific purposes. There also appears to be a connection between teachers’ ethical beliefs and their perceptions of GenAI’s utility, in terms of whether GenAI is used by students as a scaffold/support mechanism versus being used to produce content. The implications of this study provide a roadmap for developing discipline-specific guidelines that preserve L2 learning integrity while leveraging GenAI’s utility.