‘It is not the same as a classroom teacher’: A qualitative study of foreign language teachers’ perspectives on artificial intelligence-supported tools in Kazakhstan

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo

This qualitative research examines secondary school English-as-a-foreign-language teachers’ perspectives on artificial intelligence-supported tools in Kazakhstan through in-depth interviews with 16 teachers. The study investigates teachers’ views on pedagogy, their AI knowledge, and perceived opportunities and limitations. Results show pragmatic openness to adopting new digital tools, alongside concerns that certain AI scenarios may reduce the teacher’s role. The findings recommend positioning AI tools as context-specific contributors that augment, rather than replace, teachers to improve educational outcomes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages26

Reading Time1 h 6 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Teachers’ AI familiarity and adoption context

AI in language learning: opportunities and limitations

OPEN ACCESS Research Article Contemporary Educational Technology, 2025, 17(4), ep599 ISSN: 1309-517X (Online) ‘It is not the same as a classroom teacher’: A qualitative study of foreign language teachers’ perspectives on artificial intelligence-supported tools in Kazakhstan Akmarzhan Nogaibayeva 1 0000-0001-9121-7595 Gaukhar Yersultanova 1,2* 0000-0001-8913-6067 1 SDU University, Almaty, KAZAKHSTAN 2 Abai Kazakh National Pedagogical University, Almaty, KAZAKHSTAN * [Corresponding author:](Corresponding author: gyersultanova@gmail.com)[ gyersultanova@gmail.com](Corresponding author: gyersultanova@gmail.com) Citation: Nogaibayeva, A., & Yersultanova, G. (2025). ‘ It is not the same as a classroom teacher’: A qualitative study of foreign language teachers’ perspectives on artificial intelligence-supported tools in Kazakhstan. Contemporary Educational Technology, 17(4), ep599. [https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/17405](https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/17405) ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT | Received: 15 Feb 2025
Accepted: 25 Aug 2025
INTRODUCTION | This study explores secondary school teachers’ perspectives on artificial intelligence (AI) -supported tools through qualitative in-depth interviews with 16 teachers of English as a foreign language in Kazakhstan. The research aimed to understand teachers’ views on pedagogy, their knowledge of AI, and their perceptions of its opportunities and limitations. Findings revealed that teachers were largely pragmatic and open to adopting new digital tools; however, concerns arose regarding scenarios where AI might diminish the teacher’s role. The practical implication of the study suggests that AI-supported tools should be framed as context-specific contributors to learning, rather than as transformative innovations. The qualitative approach was chosen to address the challenge of limited teacher familiarity with AI, enabling interviewers to clarify concepts and provide demonstrations during discussions. Kazakhstan’s bilingual and trilingual education system provided a unique context for this study. Education reform, often associated with technology, has been a focus in the post-Soviet era, though the system remains relatively centralized compared to OECD countries. Notably, better-resourced Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools serve as a model for trilingual secondary education. Teachers reported access to continuing professional development opportunities and ICT-related training, with classrooms typically equipped with projection devices, IT rooms, and sometimes tablets. Students’ use of mobile phones in schools was regulated but permitted for specific educational purposes. This research highlights the importance of positioning AI tools as augmentative technologies, emphasizing their role in supporting rather than replacing teachers in enhancing educational outcomes.
Keywords: AI, language learning, teacher perspectives, teaching and learning | | --- | --- | The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into education has generated widespread interest, often positioned as part of a so-called “fourth wave” of technological innovation that promises to reshape teaching and learning (Miao et al., 2021) . While this narrative is compelling, it tends to obscure the practical and pedagogical complexities involved in implementing AI tools in real classrooms. Claims about AI’s transformative potential must be critically examined, especially as many tools operate on opaque algorithms, raise ethical concerns, and demonstrate uneven effectiveness across different educational contexts (Perrotta & Selwyn, 2020). This has implications for classroom teaching and one of the striking features of the use of AI in language learning is the range of applications available; some new, some much more established (see, for example, Cukurova et al., 2023; Jiang, 2022) . We start by giving a brief background on the most widely used applications including generated text, machine translation and

FAQs

What does the study investigate about AI-supported tools?

The study explores teachers’ perspectives on pedagogy, their knowledge of AI, and their perceptions of both opportunities and limitations of AI-supported tools.

What research approach and participants were used?

It uses qualitative in-depth interviews with 16 English as a foreign language teachers in Kazakhstan.

What concerns do teachers raise about AI-supported tools?

Teachers are pragmatic and open to new digital tools, but concerns emerge about scenarios where AI might diminish the teacher’s role.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by OmBimo