Artificial intelligence tools as a means of enhancing EFL students’ idiomatic competence
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In this article, the author discusses the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the classroom for teaching idioms to English as a foreign language students at a university level. Idioms are a particularly challenging part of vocabulary for students, given their figurative meanings, the cultural nuances, and the contexts in which they are used. The article explores the uses of various AI tools in idiom pedagogy, including generative chatbots based on large-scale language models, AI-based writing tools, text-to-image models, speech technologies, and AI-driven exercise generators. Through theoretical reflection and instructional design, the author introduces a four-step approach to teaching idioms with AI, offers a classification of tasks, and sets forth criteria for the critical assessment of AI-generated content. The exploration of students’ first language is an area of specific concern: English food-related idioms are compared with their Karakalpak counterparts using AI tools, and the teacher checks the suggested equivalences for accuracy. It is suggested that AI tools can support idiom acquisition when they are part of an instructor-designed curriculum that encourages critical thinking and the development of student autonomy.
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