Language, Culture and Curriculum

The impact of Artificial Intelligence on English-medium instruction teaching and learning at university level

We invite submissions for a special issue of the journal Language, Culture and Curriculum dedicated to the following theme: “The impact of Artificial Intelligence on English-medium instruction (EMI) teaching and learning at university level.” This special issue aims to explore the transformative potential of AI within tertiary education settings, with a particular focus on the impact of AI on EMI at a time when this approach in on the rise in universities all over the world (Lasagabaster, 2022; Wingrove et al., 2025). In this special issue we distinguish between AI (the analysis and interpretation of existing data to improve efficiency, accuracy and decision-making) and generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), the latter being a subset of AI used to create new content (e.g. text, images, music or models). The use of AI is revolutionising higher education, knowledge acquisition, and content authorship (Bond et al., 2024; Floridi, 2024) in ways that can profoundly reshape the teaching and learning for teachers and students in higher education institutions. In fact, university students tend to be positive about the use of AI-language tools, but at the same time show concern about their impact on future education (Mälström, Stöhr & Ou, 2023). And this concern is shared by many education stakeholders due to the unequal spread of AI tools and the lack of studies on what their implementation entails (Wang, 2025). 

In this context, and although AI is expected to enhance EMI (Alqarni et al., 2024; Kikuchi, 2024; Bannister et al, 2023), little is known about the actual impact of AI on EMI teaching and learning, while guidelines and policies that emphasise academic integrity and an ethical use of AI are clearly missing (Jin et al., 2025; Ou, Stöhr & Malström, 2024). Since GenAI seems to be particularly good in searching and accessing information as well as in creating content in English faster than in any other language, the potential of GenAI tools when students and lecturers are learning and teaching through English may be far-reaching.

This special issue seeks to bring together empirical and practical perspectives on the use, abuse and impact of AI for both lecturers and students involved in EMI, addressing the opportunities and challenges posed by AI in classrooms where English is the language of instruction.

We welcome original research articles on topics including but not limited to:

• Are universities providing EMI stakeholders with a clear regulatory framework for the use of AI? What can be (un)ethical practices of AI within EMI?

•  Do EMI students and teachers receive any training from their institutions on the use of AI?

• When, how and why do students use AI tools? And teachers? Do students and lecturers use AI critically and judiciously?
• What language do EMI teachers and students choose when they use AI? Are other languages resorted to or does English exclude the presence of other languages when AI is used in EMI?
• Does AI replicate, perpetuate, neutralise or blur textual, discursive or metadiscursive variations across disciplines in English? Do teachers and students identify when AI suggests changes that are not ‘native’ to their discipline?  

• Do EMI lecturers discern if a student has used AI in an assignment? How do they know? Is it because of form, content, or both? Do they assess the uses of AI differently (e.g. penalise when content is plagiarised, do not penalise when AI has been used to improve or correct English)?