A Study on Korean Language Teachers' Perceptions of Utilizing AI-Generated Illustrations.

This study explores the current use of illustrations in teaching and learning materials used in Korean language education and compares Korean language teachers' perceptions of illustrations generated by AI with their views on conventional illustrations. To achieve this, a two-hour workshop on AI image generation was provided to 52 active Korean language teachers, helping them to understand AI tools and giving them hands-on experience in creating illustrations using AI. After experiencing the AI image generation process, a survey was conducted on three main topics: first, the current use of illustrations in Korean language education; second, a comparison between traditional and AI-generated illustrations; and third, evaluations of AI image generation and teachers’ willingness to use it. The results showed that Korean language teachers regarded illustrations as highly important in the educational setting and typically sourced them through online searches. Additionally, AI-generated illustrations received significantly higher scores in terms of usefulness, difficulty, relevance to the teaching content, and overall satisfaction compared to conventional illustrations, indicating that AI-generated illustrations could address some limitations of traditional ones. Furthermore, the study found that teachers were highly enthusiastic about learning how to use AI tools and creating their own AI illustrations. This paper holds significance in suggesting a new paradigm shift in the way illustrations are acquired for Korean language teaching materials, moving from “searching” to “generating”.