In this section, we consider some of the key ethical/moral, philosophical and legal issues that underlie the deployment of AI. Teachers and learners need to develop an understanding of these to use AI responsibly.

• 16 Can AI support language learning?

• 17 What does AI mean for teachers?

• 18 How can we make AI fair?

• 19 How can we make AI accessible to all?

• 20 Who owns the data?

• 21 Does AI help learners cheat?

• 22 Whose content does AI use?

• 23 Who creates AI?

• 24 Can we control AI?

• 25 How can we become critical users of AI?

Can AI support language learning?

The research conundrum

AI is present in a range of different learning technologies, as we saw in Section B. So, when we ask whether AI can support language learning, we need to specify what AI technology we mean. Once we’ve specified which AI technology we are talking about, we can explore what research has to say about it. Almost immediately though, we run into problems. Research studies are underpinned by different theoretical frameworks, and they ask different research questions. They utilise different research methodologies, look at different groups of learners and teachers, and the research takes place in very different contexts. This makes it difficult to compare the results of research studies that look at the same AI technologies. What works well for you in your context with your learners, may not work well for me in my context with my learners.

One way that researchers can compare different research studies is to undertake a systematic review of research that has already been carried out. By reviewing a range of research evidence, a systematic review aims to draw conclusions about the effectiveness (or otherwise) of a certain approach or a certain tool. Researchers usually set specific criteria for deciding which research studies to include in their review. For example, they may decide to include only research carried out in the last few years, and which has been published in peer-reviewed journals. So, to try and answer the question, ‘Can AI support language learning?’, let's look at what research in the form of systematic reviews has to say about two of the AI tools we explored in Section B.