Bridging the Skills Gap: Assessing Teacher Preparedness, Digital Literacy, and Institutional Support for AI Integration in ELT

الملخص

The consequences of integrating Generative AI tools like ChatGPT into English Language Teaching (ELT) for personalized learning, immediate feedback, and administrative task automation could be of great importance, and the educational field has already begun to recognize it. Integrating these tools into pedagogy should be easier than it currently is. The literature reveals that the majority of teachers using AI tools is much larger (76%) than that of teachers feeling sufficiently trained to use pedagogy that incorporates AI tools (20%). Our research attempts to bridge this gap by evaluating the degree of teacher educational preparation and digital literacy relating to the ethical and pragmatic integration of AI. Through literature, this study concludes that professional qualifications and the associated pedagogical training must evolve to minimize the negative consequences of AI to be flexible and functional. There are certain minimum institutional requirements to be met to ensure the consequences of the learning module implemented are maximally useful, clearly defined governance frameworks, digital equity, controlled data privacy, and baseline soft and hardware capabilities. An AI-enabled curriculum in ELT is what this paper advocates for, and to make it acceptable, focused training programs, policies of educational baseline equity, and AI-enabled balanced pedagogy are the minimum requirements.