ENG: - Frit emne 4: AI in English education: critical perspectives and practical approaches

This course critically examines generative AI in English education at high-school and university levels, moving beyond binary thinking about whether AI is “good” or “bad” to explore more productive questions, including “when does AI use support learning and when does it undermine it?”, “why has AI become synonymous with cheating in educational contexts, and is this framing helpful?”, “how do we support deep learning when students are not reading assigned texts or coming prepared to English class?”, and “might AI actually offer ways to address some of these pre-existing problems?”

The course focuses on understanding how AI affects learning itself, and not just on using AI as a tool. Students will examine fundamental concerns such as the loss of productive struggle and learning friction essential for understanding, deskilling effects, the “synthetic knowledge crisis” (Stricker, 2025)(1) where answers are accepted without comprehension, and the erosion of tolerance for not-knowing and having to deal with unclear questions. Students will examine these issues through linguistic analysis, drawing on corpus linguistics to analyse AI-generated text, translation studies to understand bias in machine translation, sociolinguistics to explore the extent to which affordances and limitations of AI technologies shape students’ identities in today’s classrooms, and phonetics to investigate how AI-generated voices are perceived and the ideologies they carry.

The course recognises that many challenges in English education preceded the arrival of generative AI. We explore whether and how AI might be part of meaningful solutions, or whether it simply accelerates the existing problems. Through case studies, hands-on analysis, fieldwork, and engagement with current research and policy debates, students will learn to decide when, why and how to use AI in educational contexts.

 (1) https://jeppestricker.substack.com/p/the-synthetic-knowledge-crisis