Generative AI for English for Academic Purposes - What's Next for EAP?

While artificial intelligence (AI) applications for academic writing have been used for decades, the advent of generative AI has posed significant challenges for (English) academic writing given its ability to instantly produce text in an academic register across any genre or discipline through a simple natural language prompt. Studies have already shown that generative AI use is difficult to automatically detect, that accompanying citations, references and even content may be factually incorrect (or ‘hallucinated’), and that students may over rely on generative AI at the expense of authentically acquiring the requisite research and composition skills required to succeed in academia. At the same time, however, generative AI applications have the potential to fundamentally change the way that English for Academic Purposes is learned and taught, for example, through the provision of instant local and global written (corrective) feedback across multiple drafts, creation of exemplars designed and composed to suit specific individual disciplinary content and/or linguistic needs, automatically generated assessment practice items, and many more.

This talk explores both affordances and issues as related to the introduction and potential integration of generative AI within the English for Academic Purposes classroom, serving as a guide to achieving best practice for both learners and practitioners while seeking to downplay purported negative perceptions regarding the ‘end’ of EAP as we know it.

Affirming the Heterogeneity of English and English Users: Documentary Film Making for Praxis

The linguistic diversity of English has been investigated and promoted under the umbrella concept of global Englishes, including world Englishes, English as a lingua franca, and translanguaging, which highlights the multiplicity, negotiability, and fluidity of English (Rose & Galloway, 2019). Furthermore, scholars have directed greater attention to social justice in language education, emphasizing the need to illuminate not only the diversity of linguistic forms and practices but also the English users who bring their racial, gender, class, sexuality, and other identities to communication (Kubota et al., 2022; Saraceni & Jacob, 2021). These pluralistic perspectives have challenged the perceived superiority of standardized English and native speakers of English, who are often imagined as white, and advocated awareness raising among students and teachers (Matsuda, 2020). Nevertheless, there is a persistent belief that the best forms of English are standardized varieties spoken by white native speakers from North America or England, leading to not only accent but also to racial discrimination (Brown, 2022). Although generative AI technology could assist speakers modulate their accent in some work settings, it cannot be applied to everyday encounters in all situations for everyone. One way of countering harmful ideologies is to use video resources to raise people’s awareness of diversity. This presentation will describe the creation of a documentary film, World Englishes: Voices in Canada (Kubota & Deschambault, 2024). It will discuss the potential of such work as public scholarship to mobilize scholarly knowledge for praxis (Freire, 1998)—critical reflection and action for social change.

Second Language Education in the Brave New World: A New Vision

In this presentation, I articulate a new vision of a transformed second language education in the brave new world with the rapid development of generative AI technology. I will share the significant challenges that recent technological developments such as the rise of generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT) for learning and teaching, especially language learning and teaching. The vision of transformed education has four pillars. The first pillar highlights the socio-contextually emergent nature of L2 competence. It locates the emergence of L2 grammar and interactional competence in humans acting conjointly with others with and through their L2. The second pillar, humanism, calls for a complex dynamic systems theory–informed understanding of individual differences, with learner agency as a central driving force. The third pillar is equity and calls colleagues to address issues to do with inequity and injustice in language education. Mixed methods research, the fourth pillar, helps us to make nuanced findings generalizable and transferrable for practitioners and policymakers. I conclude the talk with a call on further research to pursue this new vision. 

The Impact of GenAI on Language Across Disciplines

in the Age of EMI

This talk revisits two essential concepts, language and discipline. Looking across three dimensions of language – normative, socio-ideological, and interactional (Kuteeva, 2023) – I argue that large language models (LLMs), e.g. ChatGPT-4, work quite well across different languages as codes, especially for majority languages. Their use is less straightforward with regard to specific disciplinary discourses. When it comes to authorial voice, stance, and stylistic nuance, the LLM output often requires human intervention. How is this variation connected to academic disciplines? Disciplines are not set in stone: objects of study, research methodologies, and contextual factors impact knowledge-making and literacy practices. Recent debates across various research communities call for an increase in knowledge perspectives. In this context, GenAI-supported tools hold potential to address systemic biases, e.g. between Global North and Global South (Nature Editorial, 2023). LLMs are indeed useful for facilitating access to so far occluded genres, for providing translations, and for acting as a sounding board in the process of iterative prompting and interactive refinement (e.g., Mollick, 2023). At the same time, as LLMs lack agency and knowledge of the local context, they may drive both language use and knowledge construction towards further homogeneity and reinforcement of existing biases (Kuteeva & Andersson, 2024). To address these limitations, I suggest ways to foster collaboration between EMI and EAP professionals to support disciplinary literacy practices and critical stance by drawing on their knowledge of socio-material contexts and multilingual repertoires.