AILA Review· 2026Q1
Generative artificial intelligence and foreign language learning
- 2citations
- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Most teachers (92.1%) find generative AI tools ethical for specific uses in higher education, with ethical beliefs linked to whether students use AI as a scaffold versus for content production.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- 92.1% of language teachers surveyed believe generative AI tools are ethical for specific uses.
- Teachers' ethical beliefs about AI correlate with their views on its utility for L2 learning.
- AI utility is perceived differently based on whether students use it as a scaffold or to produce content.
- The study used a sequential mixed-methods design with surveys (N=101) and interviews (N=6).
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
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.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. AILA Review, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Information Systems
Information SystemsComputer Science