Speakers
Description
Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly become an integral part of higher education, offering new opportunities for teaching, learning, and instructional design. While previous research has predominantly focused on students’ use of AI in language learning and academic writing, limited attention has been given to teachers’ adoption of AI for developing English for Specific Purposes (ESP) instructional materials. As teacher-designed materials are essential for ensuring that ESP instruction is pedagogically sound and responsive to learners’ needs, understanding teachers’ perceptions and practices regarding AI-assisted material development has become increasingly important. This study examines how ESP teachers use AI chatbots at different stages of worksheet development, and how they perceive the usefulness and limitations of AI support at each stage. A mixed-methods approach was employed, combining questionnaire data with semi-structured interviews involving 30 ESP teachers at the College of Foreign Economic Relations. Questionnaire data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and interview data were analysed thematically to identify recurring patterns in teachers' experiences and perceptions. The findings show that teachers' use of AI is stage-dependent and most participants avoid relying on AI at the initial, idea-generation stage of worksheet development. They are concerned that AI use at this stage may reduce pedagogical reflection, constrain creativity, and produce materials that are insufficiently tailored to learners' needs and course objectives. Therefore, teachers use AI during the refinement and revision stages because they find it useful for improving efficiency, language quality, and the visual presentation of instructional materials. By examining teachers' perspectives on AI-assisted ESP material development, this study extends the current literature on teacher-AI collaboration and offers practical insights into the effective and pedagogically responsible integration of AI into instructional material design.
Keywords: AI, college teachers, ESP worksheets, perspectives, Vietnamese context
