Work-in-Progress

The GenAI Revolution in Language Learning: Examining Students’ Perspectives on ChatGPT 4o for Autonomous English Speaking Practice

The proposed research aims to investigate the effectiveness of ChatGPT 4o, an AI chatbot powered by large language models (LLMs) like GPT, for English-speaking practice. This study seeks to address a gap in the existing literature by exploring learners’ perceptions, engagement, and language development outcomes when using ChatGPT 4o compared to interacting with a human speaker of American English. The research will employ a mixed-methods approach to gather comprehensive data and insights.

From Journals to Syllabi: Exploring AI Policies in Academia

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integral to academic research and writing, institutions and publishers are implementing policies to guide its ethical use. This study examines AI policies through a genre analysis framework, beginning with 80 journals selected from Google Scholar’s Top Publications in eight categories (English-language journals only), representing a wide range of academic disciplines. From this sample, 71 unique journals hosted by 29 publishers were analyzed, identifying 29 distinct policies. The findings reveal a striking uniformity, with journals predominantly adapting, adopting, or referencing publisher-level policies that permit AI use in academic writing, provided it is disclosed in the methods section or acknowledgments. No significant field-specific differences were observed in the policies.

Expanding our analysis, we plan to examine AI policies from the top 100 universities, identified through the QS World University Rankings 2025, and 100 randomly selected syllabi from top programs within these universities. Our research seeks to understand how AI policies are articulated and implemented across academic ecosystems, contributing to the discourse on ethical accountability and transparency.