Integrating AI in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning: Learner Autonomy and Tool Utilization in an Algerian University

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has experienced a remarkable boom in recent years, becoming one of the most significant phenomena shaping the modern world. While AI carries abstract and futuristic ideas that provide opportunities for evolutionary optimizations in our lives, it may also pose potential threats. The impacts of AI are evident across various sectors, but it is particularly sought after in teaching, especially in foreign language teaching and learning. The teaching and learning of foreign languages increasingly require AI-equipped support and the integration of AI tools to develop learner autonomy. This research focuses on the use of these tools to enhance learning autonomy skills and aims to understand the functioning of AI through an analytical study of its applications in foreign language education. The goal was to delve into the way AI technology is revolutionizing education and to determine AI’s role in foreign language teaching and learning at an Algerian university. Based on statistical data, the results revealed a high level of AI tool usage in the teaching and learning French and English as foreign languages, with no statistically significant difference between the responses of French and English students regarding their use