A Systematic Review of EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on Artificial Intelligence Technologies

Abstract

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into education, especially in teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL), has increased the interest and curiosity among EFL teachers. This systematic review examines the perspectives of both in-service and pre-service EFL teachers regarding the use of AI in their teaching practices. The review focuses on studies published between 2020 and 2024. The Scopus database was reviewed, and a total of 29 articles were analyzed. The study adopted a systematic review, and content analysis was utilized as the research method. The findings reveal that the commonly used research method in the reviewed literature was qualitative. EFL teachers generally regard AI tools as helpful for aiding language teaching, increasing student engagement, promoting personalized learning, and improving overall teaching efficiency. Moreover, AI is viewed as a means to reduce teacher workload by contributing to lesson planning, materials development, and providing feedback to students. However, the findings also show that EFL teachers are concerned about using AI tools in language classrooms. These include the potential for AI tools to promote cheating and plagiarism and the lack of adequate training for both students and teachers in utilizing AI effectively. Furthermore, the possibility of students' over-reliance on AI, potentially hindering their critical thinking and creativity, and ethical and privacy issues related to the handling of data by AI tools are also frequently cited concerns.