Mat and Phil look back to look forward: What can the history of language teaching teach us about its future with AI? If generative AI represents something fundamentally new, does responding to it require leaving behind what language educators already know?

Drawing on Mat’s forthcoming chapter on language teacher education before generative AI, our hosts reflect on what established knowledge about language, learning, and pedagogy can contribute to the decisions educators are making about AI today. How does AI challenge existing practices in teaching and assessment? What does it mean for the importance of language awareness? And, perhaps most importantly, how can educators decide when to rely on technology and when to rely on human expertise?

Making the case for treating generative AI as genuinely new without leaving behind what we already know, the conversation highlights the linguistic, pedagogical, and human foundations that can help (teacher) educators navigate what comes next.

In this episode:

Mat is blogging about his chapter for the Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence and Language Teacher Education. Go to https://PantaRhei.press and search for the posts with “Beyond AI” in the title.

Hubbard, Philip and Mathias Schulze (2025) AI and the future of language teaching – Motivating sustained integrated professional development (SIPD). International Journal of Computer Assisted Language Learning and Teaching 15.1., 1–17. DOI:10.4018/IJCALLT.378304 https://www.igi-global.com/gateway/article/full-text-html/378304