AI's Role in EFL: Optimizing Opportunities while Mitigating Risks

As artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are increasingly being adopted in educational contexts, it is essential to understand how key stakeholders perceive opportunities and challenges for responsible integration. This mixed-methods study explored EFL teachers' perspectives on utilizing AI tools for instruction, learning activities, and assessment. An online survey collected both quantitative and qualitative data from 150 EFL teachers regarding their experiences, attitudes, and beliefs about AI's pedagogical role and ethical considerations. Descriptive statistics revealed generally positive views of AI's potential for personalized learning and practice opportunities, though ongoing concerns around risks to human interaction, privacy, and bias. Teachers favored collaborative models, with AI playing a supporting role under educator oversight. Significant gaps in teachers' technical literacy and lack of training or support for integration emerged as barriers requiring attention. While potential applications for standardized assessment were acknowledged, ongoing validation of AI models against human judgment was deemed necessary. Qualitative analysis identified uncertainty around AI's impacts on higher-order skill development and communicative competence. Guidelines delineating appropriate roles and oversight frameworks were seen as imperative to ensure aligned, ethical usage maximizing opportunities. This study provides timely empirical insights to inform the development of policies, tools, programs, and practices facilitating the judicious adoption of AI as a partner in strengthening EFL education worldwide through collaborative human-AI partnerships grounded in evidence-based research.