Abstract:

The rapid emergence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming educational practices worldwide, including the teaching and learning of foreign languages in Australian secondary schools. In multicultural contexts, where classrooms often include learners from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds, AI technologies present both significant opportunities and complex challenges for educators attempting to support equitable and meaningful language learning. This paper examines key issues surrounding the implementation of generative AI in foreign language education at the junior secondary level in Australia.

Across Australian education systems, recent initiatives have sought to integrate AI tools into classroom practice to enhance learning, streamline assessment processes, and reduce teacher workload. AI-based writing assistants, autofeedback platforms, multimodal learning environments, and adaptive language learning systems are increasingly being trialled in public schools. Such systems can provide real time feedback on pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary use; generate differentiated tasks; and assist teachers in designing materials aligned with curriculum outcomes. Despite these benefits, the expanding use of AI has raised concerns about teacher preparedness, data privacy, transparency, and the reliability of machine generated content. Research suggests that inadequate professional learning and the absence of comprehensive regulatory guidance may contribute to inconsistent implementation across schools, potentially widening equity gaps and exacerbating existing differences in digital capability among teachers.

In multicultural and multilingual classrooms, generative AI can support learning by producing texts and translations across multiple languages, thereby enabling translanguaging pedagogies and strengthening connections between students’ home languages and target languages. AI enabled tools may help scaffold comprehension, translate task instructions, or generate culturally relevant examples that foster learner engagement. However, risks remain. Biases embedded in training datasets, limited representation of minority and Indigenous languages, and the potential reproduction of cultural stereotypes pose challenges for culturally responsive teaching. Inaccurate or culturally insensitive outputs may particularly disadvantage students drawing on diverse linguistic repertoires or those whose home languages are underrepresented in mainstream digital tools.

This paper will present a review of current literature around the implementation of AI in foreign language teaching in Australia and present initial data from a 12 month study commenced this year with interview results from teachers and students.

It is hoped that this study will contribute to ongoing national and international discussions about responsible AI use in education and highlights the need for further research that examines AI adoption through the lens of multiculturalism, equity, and the specific dynamics of language learning in Australian schools

Keywords:

Languages Education, Technology, Artificial Intelligence.