LEAP is envisaged as a collaborative research initiative dedicated to investigating the implications of artificial intelligence for language classrooms and language teacher education, with an initial emphasis on the preparation and professional development of English language teachers. Our central concern is how teacher education can respond critically, responsibly and pedagogically to the challenges and opportunities created by AI, preparing future language teachers not merely to use emerging technologies, but to understand, evaluate and integrate them meaningfully into their professional practice. LEAP would bring together research on AI literacy, teacher education, pedagogical innovation, institutional governance and professional agency, with particular attention to the relationship between institutional expectations, teacher educators’ practices and student teachers’ professional development.
Proposed Research Objectives
- Investigate AI literacy in foreign language teacher education.
Examine how initial and continuing teacher education programmes address AI literacy, including critical understanding, ethical awareness, pedagogical decision-making and the competencies future language teachers need to navigate AI-mediated educational environments.
- Examine the relationship between institutional AI policies and teacher education practices.
Investigate how institutional policies, regulations and guidelines concerning AI are communicated, interpreted and translated into concrete educational practices within foreign language teacher education programmes, identifying areas of alignment, inconsistency and emerging needs.
- Explore AI-informed pedagogical practices in the preparation of language teachers.
Investigate how teacher educators prepare future language teachers to evaluate and use AI in language teaching, assessment, feedback, materials development and lesson planning, while fostering critical reflection, professional judgement and pedagogical autonomy.
- Understand the development of professional agency among future language teachers.
Examine how student teachers develop their understanding of AI’s educational possibilities, limitations and ethical implications, particularly through coursework, teaching methodology, reflective practice and supervised teaching placements.
- Develop evidence-informed approaches to foreign language teacher education.
Generate research-based recommendations, frameworks and professional learning resources that can support teacher educators, programme coordinators and institutions in preparing future language teachers for educational contexts increasingly shaped by AI.
- Foster collaborative and international research in AI and language teacher education.
- Develop collaborative research projects, joint publications and opportunities for international comparison, with an initial interest in Portugal–Brazil cooperation and the longer-term possibility of applying for competitive research funding.
CETAPS Researchers: Carlos Lindade and Alexandra Fidalgo das Neves
External researchers: Jailine Mayara Farias (Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil) and Angélica Maia (Federal University of Paraíba, Brazil)