A Systematic Review of Language Educators' Practices and Development with GenAI

Synthesis: A systematic review of language educators' practices and development with GenAI — Li, Exter, Feng, Tang and Xu (2026) report a PRISMA-aligned systematic review of 23 SSCI-indexed empirical studies (December 2022–September 2024) on how language educators across pre-service, in-service, and higher-education contexts perceive, adopt, and learn to integrate GenAI. Synthesizing findings through the Aristotelian knowledge typology of episteme (theoretical understanding), techne (practical skill), and phronesis (practical wisdom), the review finds cautious, selective adoption weighted toward behind-the-scenes preparation, persistent competency gaps, and only three structured professional-development interventions that nonetheless signal gains in knowledge, confidence, and identity.

Key Findings

• Language educators value GenAI most for preparatory work — lesson planning, materials creation, and writing support/feedback — yet show hesitancy about direct, classroom-facing implementation, reflecting a theory–practice gap between approving AI in principle and using it live.
• Reported benefits center on workflow efficiency and writing-related support; primary concerns are academic integrity (plagiarism and assessment validity), professional displacement and diminished teacher authority, and technostress; attitudes tend to evolve from initial insecurity toward more confident, selective use with exposure.
• Adoption is shaped by professional-identity factors, pedagogical considerations, technical aspects, institutional conditions, and Academic Integrity concerns, with extended Technology Acceptance Model and push–pull–mooring analyses; educators fall on a spectrum from non-adoption to comprehensive classroom integration.
• Competency gaps map to episteme (limited understanding of AI capabilities and limits), techne (weak Prompt Engineering, AI-enhanced task/assessment design, content evaluation, and difficulty detecting AI-generated text), and phronesis (ethical judgment, bias/privacy handling, adaptive expertise, and context-sensitive judgment).
• Only three included studies reported structured PD — an embedded grammar-course module (Moorhouse et al.), a government EMI program (Tsou et al.), and embedded chatbot inquiry (Lee et al.) — but all converged on gains in knowledge, confidence, and identity reframing, shifting views of GenAI from "replacement risk" to assistant/augmenter.
• The review argues PD should pair technical skill-building with practical wisdom, moving from awareness-raising and ethics through hands-on tool mastery to co-design of AI-enhanced lessons, and recommends a two-phase "back-end then classroom" implementation strategy.

Connected Concepts

• Generative AI
• Language Learning
• Teaching
• Professional Development
• Workplace Learning
• English Education (EAP / EFL / ESL)
• Teacher AI Competency
• Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

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Citation

Li, B., Exter, M., Feng, W., Tang, G., & Xu, K. (2026). A systematic review of language educators' practices and development with GenAI. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 36, 100010.