Beyond ChatGPT: roles that artificial intelligence tools can play in an English language classroom

Artificial intelligence (AI) has proven to be a valuable tool for education. It might perform different functions to facilitate teaching and learning experiences, with a learning companion being one of them. However, teachers often have little understanding of the pool of opportunities provided by AI-powered tools. Having a learning companion in a language classroom is crucial. However, getting involved in human–computer interaction requires understanding of the services that the machine can offer, whether it is a text written as a response to students’ input, feedback provided to help students gauge their language level or translation prompt helping students understand the reading text. This research aims at displaying the range of AI services that are applicable in the foreign language classroom and grouping them according to their functionality. The authors selected 150 available in open access online instruments that apply AI and evaluated them against the criteria, which allowed them to organize these tools into categories according to their possible applications in the classroom. This might help teachers make informed decisions about the appropriate tool for certain teaching situations or recommend to their students a tool that could enhance the learning experience.