Teaching with AI, Teaching for the Future
Artificial intelligence is changing language education by enabling more personalised learning, supporting multilingual classrooms, and opening new ways to engage learners. At the same time, AI raises clear ethical challenges. Without careful use, it can reinforce bias, undermine privacy, and weaken critical thinking. Ethical AI use is therefore a core requirement of human-centred language teaching.
Putting learners first
AI tools process sensitive learner data, such as texts, voices, and interaction patterns. Ethical use means transparency, informed consent, data protection, and clear institutional standards that safeguard learners’ rights and well-being.
Fairness and inclusion
AI can reproduce linguistic and social biases, for example by favouring certain language varieties or cultural norms. Teachers need the skills to identify these risks, critically assess AI outputs, and support inclusive and fair learning environments.
Teacher agency
AI should support, not replace, professional judgement. When teachers understand how AI works and where its limits lie, they remain in control of pedagogical decisions and ensure alignment with curricula and learners’ needs.
Critical and creative learners
Language classrooms are key spaces for developing critical AI literacy. By reflecting on AI-generated texts, translation tools, and chatbots, learners build language skills alongside critical thinking and responsible digital citizenship.
From practice to shared standards
Ethical AI use requires common frameworks, open resources, and collaborative professional development. Shared modules, toolkits, and communities of practice help embed ethical principles in language education across Europe.