Jianyuan Luo

The rapid expansion of AI has intensified debates about teaching work in language education. Rather than treating AI as either a threat or a substitution, this multi-case study examines how in-service language teachers interpret, adapt and recast their roles in AI practice. Drawing on an ecological lens of agency, the study uses guided online interviews, data and WeChat follow-up exchanges with four teachers who use AI for feedback, scoring, speaking practice, reading texts and lesson design. Findings show that AI shifts tasks but does not remove teacher judgment. Teachers adopted AI outputs selectively, revised or rejected them when they conflicted with course goals, learner needs or moral concerns, and increasingly understood themselves as designers, mediators and care supporters. AI is thus conceptualised as a school condition within which agency is enacted, rather than a fixed force replacing teachers.

agency; AI in education; identity; ecological lens; language teaching

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