Teachers’ Perceptions Upon the Teaching of the English Language through the Use of Artificial Intelligence at the University: Challenges and Opportunities

This study explores the effect that artificial intelligence (AI) is having on the teaching and learning of English in tertiary education, both the potential benefits and challenges. A combination of survey and in-depth interview was employed. The survey was sent out through Google Forms via WhatsApp groups and in our network to English lecturers. The participants consisted of 16 English lecturers at public and private universities in Vietnam. The survey results and interview data were coded, and the analysis indicated that AI technology provides both opportunities and challenges for English language learning. There have been outstanding developments in AI contributing to English teaching at the university level, including lecturers who use several AI tools to address composing and answering questions, evaluating accuracy relative to grammar, identifying plagiarism, paraphrasing, and conducting literature reviews. This study also highlights AI’s advantage in language education, especially in grammar correction and plagiarism prevention. But in addition to its benefits, AI also gives rise to new problems for the development of the teaching of English. Successful deployment of AI requires strong digital literacy. With the advance of AI, parts of ELT might become automated. As a result, English teachers must always be learning and developing new digital competencies to forestall becoming dinosaurs in the new educational world.