Higher Education Language Teachers' Attitudes and Approaches to AI Integration into their Work - Research Paper

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ophelia

This study investigates how language teachers at a Finnish higher education institution perceive and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their work. Data were collected via an online questionnaire with an 81.82% response rate, combining multiple-choice items and open-ended questions on AI usage and perceptions. Findings indicate teachers view AI as beneficial for supporting learners, analyzing text, grammar correction, and individualized learning, while also warning that AI may increase dependence, reduce motivation for independent study, and lead to superficial learning. Teachers cluster into novice, intermediate, and advanced AI users.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages10

Reading Time25 min

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Introduction

The EuroCALL Review Volume 32, No. 2, 2025, 7-16 ISSN: 1695-2618 [https://doi.org/ 10.4995/eurocall.2025.23992](https://doi.org/ 10.4995/eurocall.2025.23992) RESEARCH PAPER Higher Education Language Teachers'Attitudes and Approaches to AI Integration into their Work Kirsi Korkealehto *; Maarit Ohinen-Salvén ** Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Finland * [kirsi.korkealehto@haaga-helia.fi](kirsi.korkealehto@haaga-helia.fi |)[ |](kirsi.korkealehto@haaga-helia.fi |) ** [maarit.ohinen-salven@haaga-helia.fi](maarit.ohinen-salven@haaga-helia.fi) How to cite this article: Korkealehto, K., & Ohinen-Salvén, M. (2025) . Higher Education Language Teachers'Attitudes and Approaches to AI Integration into their Work. The EuroCALL Review, 32(2), 7-16. [https://doi.org/10.4995/eurocall.2025.23992](https://doi.org/10.4995/eurocall.2025.23992) Abstract This study investigates how language teachers at a Finnish higher education institution perceive and integrate artificial intelligence (AI) into their work. As AI technologies rapidly transform education, understanding language teachers' experiences provides crucial insights into the challenges and opportunities of AI adoption in language learning contexts. The data were collected through an online questionnaire with response rate of 81.82% . The questionnaire comprises multiple-choice questions and open-ended questions exploring AI usage and perceptions. The key findings are that teachers perceive AI as potentially beneficial for supporting learners with a good proficiency level, analysing text, and for grammar correction as well as individualised learning. However, teachers are concerned about AI making students too reliant on technology which reduces motivation to learn independently which in turn leads to superficial learning causing students to overestimate their proficiency level. Three categories of teacher type emerged in terms of teachers’ attitudes and frequency of AI use in their work: novice (33%), intermediate (40%), and advanced (27%) AI users with varying levels of integration and attitudes toward AI applications. This study suggests that teachers regard AI as having the potential to be a valuable tool in language learning, but teacher training and support are crucial for its effective implementation. Keywords Artificial intelligence; language learning; higher education; teacher perspective; technology adaptation 1. Introduction Digitalisation has changed the whole education industry and improved learning processes in innovative ways in the past decade; AI is the next changemaker (Vincent-Lancrin & van der Vlies, 2020) . Continuous development of artificial intelligence (AI) penetrates all aspects of our lives, including language learning and teaching. Therefore, instead of resisting, language teachers need to embrace the benefits of AI as it will not replace them, on the contrary, it augments teachers’ skills and assists them in their work (Mananay, 2024; Hubbard & Schulze, 2025) . In addition to teaching their own discipline, higher education teachers need to have competences to facilitate students’ working life skills development as they are the core competences to be developed during higher education studies (Hutson et al., 2023) . This also applies to language teaching which is working-life driven. There are two sides to the use of AI in the field of language education: how teachers use it in their own work, and how they facilitate their students to use it in both language learning and in the development of working life skills (Ranieri et al., 2025) . This research focuses on language teachers’ perceived usefulness of AI in their work. In the frame of technology acceptance model (TAM), Davis (1989) highlights that perceived usefulness has a stronger influence on technology usage than ease of use. In other words, users tend to adopt applications primarily based on the value and functionality they offer, rather than how easy they are to

FAQs

How does the study collect data on teachers’ AI integration?

It uses an online questionnaire with a reported response rate of 81.82%, including multiple-choice and open-ended questions about AI usage and perceptions.

What benefits of AI do language teachers perceive?

Teachers perceive AI as potentially beneficial for supporting learners with good proficiency, analyzing text, grammar correction, and enabling individualized learning.

What concerns do teachers raise about AI use in language learning?

Teachers are concerned that students may become overly reliant on AI, which reduces motivation to learn independently and can result in superficial learning and inflated self-estimates of proficiency.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Ophelia