The Development of University Language Instructors’ Generative AI Literacy in English Language Teaching

The increasing integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in English language teaching (ELT) calls for an immediate and thorough response from language teachers (Wang et al., 2024). The affordance of GenAI, with its disruptive nature, requires language teachers to not only understand the functions of these tools but also actively engage with them in digital literacy practices and develop their GenAI literacy. This study aims to provide comprehensive documentation of teachers’ meaning-making, collaboration, implementation, and reflection in digital literacy practices, uncovering what specific GenAI engagement and GenAI literacies lead to good practices.

Employing an exploratory qualitative approach, the study explores how ten English language instructors at a Chinese university integrate GenAI tools in language teaching and develop their GenAI literacy through lesson study. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, classroom observations, recordings of collaborative lesson preparation/reflection sessions, and documents. Guided by a conceptual framework adapted from UNESCO’s AI competency framework for teachers (UNESCO, 2024), our analysis reveals the specific components of university language teachers’ GenAI literacy and developmental trajectories of teachers’ GenAI literacy mediated by multiple factors. Our study also highlights the pedagogical and contextual challenges of engaging GenAI in ELT classrooms and the strategies teachers use to reconcile them. We argue that while GenAI literacy adds to teachers’ knowledge and skill sets, language teachers’ core competencies, such as linguistic skills, pedagogical knowledge, adaptability, dedication, and perseverance, are integral and even decisive to good literacy practices. Our study contributes to the reconceptualization of teachers’ digital literacy in the AI age and informs policymakers and teacher trainers to develop tailor-made professional development programmes for language teachers.