ABSTRACT The advent of sophisticated LLMs and their integration into daily communicative practices represents a significant contextual development for the field of TEFL and Applied Linguistics. As a conceptual contribution, this paper argues that existing models of communicative competence, most notably Canale and Swain's foundational framework, require expansion to adequately describe the realities of language use in AI‐saturated environments. When learners employ AI for translation, drafting, and polishing, their communicative competence is no longer a purely human‐to‐human construct but can become a collaborative human–AI endeavor. This paper proposes an additional and context‐dependent dimension that complements traditional models: AI Interactional Competence (AIIC), which denotes the competencies required for direct human–AI collaboration and co‐construction of meaning. The paper deconstructs AIIC into three constituents: Prompt Crafting Literacy, AI Output Evaluation Literacy, and Ethical and Strategic Mediation Literacy. Drawing on the historical evolution of communicative competence models, digital literacies, human‐computer interaction, critical pedagogy, and posthumanist applied linguistics, this article provides a theoretical update for reshaping pedagogy, assessment, and research in the age of AI. It is acknowledged that this model is provisional and supplementary competence relevant primarily in AI‐integrated educational and communicative contexts and requires empirical validation across diverse sociocultural and educational contexts.
ABSTRACT Language teacher professional development has lately been conceptualized as relational and situational identity work. Drawing on Bakhtinian notions of identity as dialogic, this case study explores the identity work of eight pre‐service ESOL teachers in dialogue with their students, peers, and teacher educator. Connecting this relational view of identity with commitment, the study also investigates how the identity work of pre‐service teachers was related to their commitment to teaching. The study took place in an introductory TESOL teaching methods course at a U.S. university. During the course, pre‐service teachers partnered with a university‐preparation ESL class to teach several lessons throughout the semester, and they discussed peers' lessons in real time with their teacher educator. Data included course materials, observations, written reflections, and interviews. Findings show ways that the pre‐service teachers enacted and imagined their teacher identities in response to their professor and students, as well as how these identities ultimately informed their commitment to teaching. Implications of this study point to potential benefits of early exposure to classroom experience for teacher identity development and commitment, as well as the essential role of the teacher educator in shaping pre‐service teachers' professional identities.
ABSTRACT When formal support for technology integration is limited, in‐service foreign language teachers may rely on informal professional development (PD) pathways to address immediate pedagogical and technological needs. This qualitative phenomenological study explored how university‐based in‐service foreign language teachers described their experiences of informal computer‐assisted language learning (CALL) PD within a self‐initiated virtual community of practice (VCoP) during the transition to online teaching. Guided by the question of how participation in a self‐initiated VCoP contributed to teachers' perceived CALL‐related professional learning and online teaching practices, the study drew on semi‐structured interviews with 12 teachers of English, French, German, and Arabic. Interview data were analyzed using a Moustakas‐informed phenomenological procedure to identify shared meanings across participants' lived experiences. Findings suggest that teachers experienced the VCoP as an informal, peer‐supported learning space shaped by a shared need to respond to limited formal CALL training during the rapid shift to online teaching. Participants described collaborative resource‐sharing, peer feedback, experimentation with digital tools, and emotional support as central to their learning, and many reported perceived changes in their use of digital tools and in the pedagogical dimensions of their CALL‐related practice. The study also identifies peer‐scaffolded professional learning as a recurring feature of the VCoP experience, through which teachers supported one another's problem‐solving and reflective practice. These findings may inform CALL teacher education and PD design in contexts where formal PD provision is limited, but should be interpreted in light of the study's single‐site, small‐sample, and interview‐based design.
ABSTRACT This study employs arts‐based autoethnography to examine the emotional labor of Wenxi, a raciolinguicized TESOL educator who navigates systemic inequities in a predominantly white post‐secondary education program in the United States. Drawing on digital artworks and narrative reflections created through an arts‐based workshop, the study explores how emotions such as shame, anger, and disheartenment can be mobilized as forms of critical affective literacy. Wenxi's narratives reveal how experiences of native‐speakerism, racial marginalization, power inequality, and institutional feeling rules have shaped her professional identity and emotional struggles. Yet, through art making, these emotions are reframed as resources for critical resistance and reflection. The findings suggest that arts‐based inquiry offers a robust pedagogical approach in teacher education by creating collective spaces where TESOL educators navigate and challenge systemic injustice. By fusing critical affective literacy with arts‐based practices, this study demonstrates the potential of emotional resistance to disrupt normative professional discourses and to foster more equitable, justice‐oriented TESOL pedagogies.
ABSTRACT Artificial intelligence (AI) tools can help students draft and revise texts more efficiently. However, AI‐generated texts may sound fluent but still fail to meet the needs of readers. This article proposes the PACC framework as a conceptual model for AI‐assisted writing in ELT. Informed by Systemic Functional Linguistics and Genre Theory, PACC focuses on four elements: purpose, audience, context, and culture. Students use these elements to design AI prompts and to evaluate and revise the AI‐generated text. This article explains the theoretical basis of the framework, shows how it can be applied in writing lessons, presents an integrated classroom example, and discusses possible implementation challenges. The PACC framework contributes to ELT writing instruction by giving teachers and students a practical and meaningful way when preparing AI prompts and when reviewing AI‐generated texts.
