The Use of AI in ESL/EFL Education: Challenges and Opportunities
A special issue of Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102). This special issue belongs to the section "Language and Literacy Education".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2026 | Viewed by 2064
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
AI has transformed English language learning and teaching, and has shown its potential for being a personalized tutor, editing texts, providing bidirectional translations between English and other languages, and summarizing academic articles. In terms of English language teaching, AI can help teachers design lesson plans, create language games, and design learning activities and worksheets. However, AI has also raised many concerns. For example, AI may encourage plagiarism and discourage creativity; English teachers may feel threatened that their teaching roles may be replaced by AI; and access to AI or a lack of it may cause inequality in learning, among other challenges. Therefore, this Special Issue addresses issues pertaining to AI in relation to ESL/EFL teaching and learning, exploring the challenges and opportunities of integrating AI into ESL/EFL teaching and learning from primary through tertiary levels. We encourage submissions that consider diverse language backgrounds and learner ages, as well as those that provide innovative perspectives and/or research methodologies.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome, and research areas may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:
- AI and personalized learning;
- AI applications in ESL/EFL teaching and learning;
- AI plagiarism and other ethical concerns;
- AI and teacher identity;
- Stakeholders' perspectives on using AI in ESL/EFL teaching and learning;
- AI and learner creativity and autonomy;
- AI and language policy in ESL/EFL contexts;
- AI and ESL/EFL teacher development.
Dr. Ju-Chuan Huang
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Education Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- English as a second language
- English as a foreign language
- AI
- plagiarism
- teacher identity
- language policy
- teacher development
- AI literacy
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