Chapter 7. From Practice to Inquiry: Teacher-Led AI Integration and Research
Eucharia Donnery
Eucharia Donnery
Abstract
This chapter is about exploratory action research that is based on iterative cycles. It offers the reader a model that can be replicated and/or tailored for the needs of the students, and invites the reader to adapt the ideas. It explores the integration of machine translation (MT) and artificial intelligence (AI) into an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) honors program in Japan, framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this EAP program, students are selected not for their English proficiency but for their potential contributions to global society, and hence, students exhibit varying levels of language skills. The course employs a fluency-first pedagogy that strategically incorporates MT (DeepL) and AI (ChatGPT) as collaborative tools to enhance learner autonomy, critical thinking, and academic writing skills. Through a structured, multi-stage writing process, which includes peer collaboration, self-evaluation, and layered feedback from teachers, AI, and writing support centers, students engage in iterative drafting, comparing AI-generated revisions at CEFR C1 and C2 levels to their work. This classroom-based exploratory action research illustrates how transparent, ethical AI integration can empower students as active agents in their learning. This chapter will appeal to educators who are interested in developing learner autonomy by managing their students’ language learning journey through the use of MT and AI, and also serves to encourage teacher-researchers to engage in their own exploratory action research to find ways to integrate MT and AI into classes.
About the Contributor
Eucharia Donnery has lived and worked in Japan since 1998, and is currently an associate professor in the World Language Center, Soka University, where she is a coordinator. Her main research areas are drama in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), intercultural communicative competence (ICC), as well as colonial discourse and feminist theory. She incorporates process drama pedagogical techniques into her teaching pedagogy in combination with CALL to promote learner autonomy and self-empowerment in SLA.
Citation
Donnery, E. (2025). From practice to inquiry: Teacher-led AI integration and research. In L. Ohashi, M. Hillis, & R. Dykes (Eds.), Artificial intelligence in our language learning classrooms (pp. 147-163). Candlin & Mynard. https://doi.org/10.47908/38/7
This chapter is about exploratory action research that is based on iterative cycles. It offers the reader a model that can be replicated and/or tailored for the needs of the students, and invites the reader to adapt the ideas. It explores the integration of machine translation (MT) and artificial intelligence (AI) into an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) honors program in Japan, framed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this EAP program, students are selected not for their English proficiency but for their potential contributions to global society, and hence, students exhibit varying levels of language skills. The course employs a fluency-first pedagogy that strategically incorporates MT (DeepL) and AI (ChatGPT) as collaborative tools to enhance learner autonomy, critical thinking, and academic writing skills. Through a structured, multi-stage writing process, which includes peer collaboration, self-evaluation, and layered feedback from teachers, AI, and writing support centers, students engage in iterative drafting, comparing AI-generated revisions at CEFR C1 and C2 levels to their work. This classroom-based exploratory action research illustrates how transparent, ethical AI integration can empower students as active agents in their learning. This chapter will appeal to educators who are interested in developing learner autonomy by managing their students’ language learning journey through the use of MT and AI, and also serves to encourage teacher-researchers to engage in their own exploratory action research to find ways to integrate MT and AI into classes.
About the Contributor
Eucharia Donnery has lived and worked in Japan since 1998, and is currently an associate professor in the World Language Center, Soka University, where she is a coordinator. Her main research areas are drama in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL), intercultural communicative competence (ICC), as well as colonial discourse and feminist theory. She incorporates process drama pedagogical techniques into her teaching pedagogy in combination with CALL to promote learner autonomy and self-empowerment in SLA.
Citation
Donnery, E. (2025). From practice to inquiry: Teacher-led AI integration and research. In L. Ohashi, M. Hillis, & R. Dykes (Eds.), Artificial intelligence in our language learning classrooms (pp. 147-163). Candlin & Mynard. https://doi.org/10.47908/38/7
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Information About the Book
Title: Artificial Intelligence in Our Language Learning Classrooms Editors: Louise Ohashi, Mary Hillis, & Robert Dykes Read more... |