Insights into AI and Language Teaching and Learning

Despite the fact that Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has been widely discussed and used in society, our understanding of how teachers can integrate GenAI into the language classroom remains underexplored. In addition, there is a lack of discussion regarding the differences between this new technology and other technologies, as well as suggestions for its incorporation into the language classroom based on educational theory. To provide solid foundations and practical guidelines for teaching with GenAI in the language classroom, this chapter draws on the TPACK (Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge) framework which articulates the types of knowledge teachers need to effectively integrate technology. Based on our review of the relevant literature and reflections on the differences between GenAI and other non-generative technologies, we introduce GenAI’s value-laden characteristic and therefore argue that the TPACK framework should be expanded to include critical thinking as an explicit dimension in TPACK exploration, suggesting the “TPACK for GenAI” framework. Based on this premise, we further explain our understanding of what Technological Knowledge (TK), Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK), Technological Content Knowledge (TCK), and TPACK mean in relation to the use of GenAI. To provide practical guidelines, we address each of these four types in terms of four different dimensions: concept, design, application, and critical thinking. This chapter thus provides generic guidelines that can lead individual teachers to develop their own effective and creative TPACK in their GenAI-assisted language classrooms.