Your Way AI Way: Let’s Meet Half-Way: Paradigm Shift in TEFL

Abstract

With the use of modern technological advancements nowadays, a drastic shift can be clearly noticeable in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) approaches. This change can be attributed to various factors related to the way learners adopt different strategies to attain learning and the way tutors adopt different approaches to develop the teaching/learning processes. This research study investigates the differences between lesson plans developed by Arab Open University (AOU) student-teachers in the light of their own preferred teaching styles and the ones produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The study investigates the impact of using Artificial Intelligence (AI) on targeted student-teachers’ performance in enhancing the developed lesson plans. The data has been collected from reviews of literature, the teaching styles inventory, and the in-class presentations of AOU student-teachers’ lesson plans. The analysis of the lesson plans developed by AOU student-teachers, and the ones created by AI app (ChatGPT) has resulted in concluding that nearly all the artificially created lesson plans lack human factor and interactive practices that meet the learners’ natural characteristic as being sociable, active, and curious. The researchers are suggesting a midway strategy that aims to aid AOU student-teachers in developing effective lesson plans by integrating the learned TEFL teaching methods with AI tools such as ChatGPT.