ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN LANGUAGE LEARNING: PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' VIEWS ON BENEFITS, ETHICS, AND PROFESSIONAL IMPLICATIONS
Author :
Abstract
Keywords
Abstract
The views of pre-service teachers who will use artificial intelligence in future classrooms are crucial to study, given the rapid, widespread integration of AI into language education. The fact that existing studies predominantly focus on students or experienced teachers creates a distinct gap in understanding of pre-service teachers' attitudes, concerns, and professional anticipations regarding artificial intelligence. This research examines pre-service English teachers' perceived benefits, ethical concerns, professional development needs, and anticipations regarding their teaching role in relation to artificial intelligence, and whether these views differ by digital literacy level. The study, which employed a convergent mixed-methods design, was conducted with 167 pre-service English language teachers at two universities. The data were collected through a questionnaire consisting of four openended questions. The relationship between demographic variables and the main themes was examined using the chi-square test of independence and Fisher's exact test in SPSS; the effect size was reported as Cramér's V. The findings indicate that participants positively evaluate artificial intelligence for personalization, efficiency, and pedagogical enhancement. However, ethical concerns regarding data privacy, academic integrity, and excessive dependency have also come to the fore. In projections of the professional future, while the perception of the assistant/tool is dominant, concerns about substitution and a pattern of "principled resistance" have also been observed. Cross-tabulation analyses showed that concern about academic integrity was more prevalent in the high-digital-literacy group. In contrast, the need for pedagogical training was voiced only in the low-digital-literacy group. In line with the findings, teacher education programs should address artificial intelligence literacy, along with its pedagogical and ethical dimensions, as an integrated whole.