Generative AI and the Changing Role of English Teachers

Generative artificial intelligence can produce

texts, explanations, exercises, translations, and

feedback within seconds. In English language

education, these tools may expand opportunities

for learners to practise reading and writing, explore

different ways of expressing ideas, and receive

support beyond classroom hours. Their educational

value, however, does not result automatically from

their technical capacity.

AI-generated content may contain inaccurate

information, reproduce social or cultural biases, and

present invented references as if they were reliable.

It may also reflect linguistic patterns that are more

strongly represented in its training data, while giving

less visibility to other varieties, identities, and cultural

perspectives. For this reason, outputs produced by AI

need to be examined critically rather than accepted

as neutral or authoritative.

The use of AI also raises questions about privacy,

authorship, assessment, and learner autonomy. When

students submit automatically generated texts without

understanding or revising them, the final product

may conceal what they can actually communicate

in English. Assessment practices therefore need

to consider not only the submitted text but also the

decisions, revisions, explanations, and language-

learning processes that led to it.

In this context, the teacher’s role is not reduced

to selecting technological resources. Teachers need to

determine whether a tool is pedagogically appropriate,

protect students’ data, design meaningful activities,

and help learners question the information they

receive. A human-centred approach treats AI as a

resource under critical and pedagogical supervision,

not as a substitute for professional judgement or

human agency.

Adaptado de: MIAO, Fengchun; HOLMES, Wayne. Guidance for generative AI in education and research. Paris: UNESCO, 2023; MIAO, Fengchun; CUKUROVA, Mutlu. AI competency framework for teachers. Paris: UNESCO, 2024. Acesso em: 3 ago. 2026.