Navigating the AI Turn: Teacher Agency, Role Transformation, and Pedagogical Strategies in Technology-Enhanced Foreign Language Education

Abstract

Large language models and generative artificial intelligence, as representative language intelligence technologies, are driving foreign language teaching to evolve from the traditional "teacher–student" dyadic structure toward a "teacher–student–AI" triadic collaborative paradigm. Based on the rapid development of artificial intelligence at home and abroad in recent years, this paper systematically reviews the current applications of AI in foreign language teaching, the transformation of teacher roles and identity crises, as well as ethical and equity-related challenges. The study finds that AI applications in foreign language teaching are growing rapidly, yet exhibit marked imbalances across regions, educational stages, and domains—namely, an overrepresentation of higher education research relative to basic education, and a predominance of writing assistance studies at the expense of oral communication and critical reading research. Teachers' roles are shifting from knowledge transmitters to human–AI collaborative instructional designers, while simultaneously facing a dual crisis of technological anxiety and identity recognition. Issues of ethical governance and educational equity urgently demand systematic responses. This paper argues that the future development of foreign language teaching must move beyond mere technology adoption; instead, it should be teacher-centered, constructing systematic coping strategies through the enhancement of AI literacy, human–AI collaborative instructional design, curriculum and assessment reconstruction, ethical governance, and institutional support.