Pre-service teacher education in times of Artificial Intelligence: a focus on the perceptions of teacher educators

Abstract

Language teacher education in the era of artificial intelligence tools has been a recurring theme in teachers' practices generating a scenario of anxiety. This study aims to analyze the perceptions of English language teacher educators regarding the questions arising from using of AI in pedagogical practices at the undergraduate level. To this end, five teacher educators were invited to share their perceptions of the contexts of pre-service teacher training in which they work about to the use of AI. In order to address this issue, we grounded the study in the theories of literacy, multilingualism, and recent work on AI literacy (literacy for artificial intelligence) and teacher training. We conducted a descriptive qualitative study. The data analysis considered the following themes: 1) recognition of the existence of AI by teachers, 2) understanding of its functioning, potential, and weaknesses by all those involved, 3) use to enhance teacher learning/training, 4) difficulty in monitoring the student's learning process when AI is used to carry out the proposed tasks and 5) unethical uses of the tools and their consequences and 6) lack of repertoire and critical capacity to evaluate the text produced by AI.