Computer Assisted Language Learning

Agency in language teaching and learning with GenAI

Background

Agency is a fundamental concept in language teaching and learning, and has been generating considerable interests in second language scholarship (e.g., Deters et al., 2015; Duff, 2012; Larsen-Freeman, 2019; Tao & Gao, 2021). With its capacity of generating human-like multilingual textual and visual output powered by advanced natural language processing and machine learning techniques, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) further forefronts agency in teaching and learning. Agency, the “socioculturally mediated” capacity to purposefully and meaningfully act in a goal-directed pursuit to change oneself or one’s situations (Ahearn, 2001, p. 112; also see Giddens, 1984), is the origin of autonomous actions (Benson, 2007). As agency is relational and develops in relationship with others and the world (Archer, 2010; Larsen-Freeman, 2019), the advancement in technological environment induces new ecologies of relationships and mediates new capacities for action, necessitating constant revisiting of issues around agency (Roe & Perkins, 2024). GenAI holds immense promises for autonomous action and personalization, but also brings potential haphazard such as overreliance, and diminished independent thinking and problem solving, hampering human agency (Lo et al., 2024; Zhang & Tur, 2024). Agency is hence recognized as a major concern associated with the integration of GenAI in education (e.g., Darvishi et al., 2024; Shum, 2024). The UNESCO guideline (2023) on GenAI integration in education emphasizes the protection of human agency should be the core considerations in the process. In effect, scholars like Satyanarayan and Jones (2024) regard agency as the core of human intelligence in the GenAI era: “GenAI requires a redefinition of intelligence not as competence, or the ability to successfully perform (usually on a prescribed task or set of tasks), but rather as agency, or the capacity to meaningfully act in a goal-directed pursuit” (p. 3). Given the centrality of agency in education in the GenAI era, it is pressing and meaningful to visit the issue of agency in language teaching and learning with GenAI. Current discussions on agency and GenAI has primarily rested at the conceptualization stage (e.g., Dattathrani & De’, 2023; Szabo & Szoke, 2024), with few empirical studies. In this backdrop, we propose a special issue dedicated to agency in language teaching and learning with GenAI to advance this line of inquiry.

Agency is “the interplay of individuals’ capacities and environment conditions” to form intentional and meaningful actions (Priestley et al., 2015, p. 3). It involves power negotiation for actions of significance (Giddens, 1984). According to Giddens, social structures provide rules and resources that enable or constrain human agency, and are also continuously being reshaped and transformed by human agency. Similarly, Archer (2010) advocated a relational lens to understanding human agency, foregrounding the interplay between structure and agency. Not only do humans have agency, but technology also has agency, albeit with distinct properties. Thus, agency in technological interactions involves not only the interactions of social structures and human agency but also the emergent interplay of human and technology agency (Dattathrani & De’, 2023). The emergent interplay of human and machine agency is situated in personal histories, social structures, and socio-technological circumstances (Rose & Jones, 2005). Thus, investigating agency with technology are in essence an exploration into the intertwining relationships among human agency, technology agency, and sociocultural resources/constraints and opportunity structures within and beyond technology. This interplay is further fuelled and influenced by cognitive and affective factors and processes, such as self-efficacy, beliefs, motivation, reflexivity and emotions (Archer, 2010; Bandura, 2001; Burkitt, 2012), and is constructed in temporal-relational contexts of action where present circumstances interact with the past experience and anticipated futures (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; Priestley et al., 2015). Thus, agency is relational, emergent, ecological, and temporal, being a complex and multifaceted phenomenon.

Given its complexity, we invite studies to adopt an array of theoretical perspectives to shed light on the various facets of agency in language teaching and learning with GenAI and to unravel cognitive and affective processes and temporal factors that are at play in shaping the process. Explorations into this phenomenon carry implications for the conceptualization of initiatives that support language learners’ and teachers’ agentic behaviors on and with GenAI so as to maximize the affordances of GenAI for self-directed and personalized actions while circumventing its potential haphazard on human agency in language teaching and learning.

Proposed Aims and Scope

The aim of this special issue is to curate a collection of empirical studies that examine agency in language teaching and learning with GenAI. It is hoped that through promoting scholarly discussions and explorations into this research issue, we could enrich scholarly understanding of language learners’ and teachers’ agency on and with GenAI for different aspects of language teaching and learning inside and beyond the classroom as well as the factors at play, and inform pedagogical initiatives that amplify learner and teacher agency in interacting with GenAI. We expect the contributions to this issue to address, but not limited to, the following topics related to agency in language teaching and learning with GenAI:

• Learner agency with GenAI for self-directed and personalized language learning beyond the classroom and/or to connect in-class and out-of-class learning
• Learner agency with GenAI in pedagogical tasks
• The positive and/or negative effects of GenAI pedagogical task design on learner agency
• Language assessment and learner agency with GenAI
• Cognitive and affective factors and processes that shape learner agency with GenAI for pedagogical tasks and for informal learning
• Interventions that enhance learner agency in interaction with GenAI
• Relationship of the nature of the shared agency between GenAI and learners/teachers with learning/professional practice
• Preservice and in-service language teachers’ agency with GenAI for professional learning and professional practices
• Influencing factors of teacher agency with GenAI
• Professional training and teacher agency with GenAI
• The positive and/or negative influence of GenAI on teacher professional agency
• Evolution of learner and teacher agency with GenAI over time