“Just a pocket knife, not a machete”: Large language models in TEFL teacher education & digital text sovereignty

Abstract

This paper approaches AI in TEFL teacher education from a perspective of digital text sovereignty (digitale Textsouveränität). Digital sovereignty (digitale Souveränität) is a concept that goes beyond media literacy and data literacy as a set of skills, to include personal competences in a more Humboldtian vision of education. Digital text sovereignty focusses on all those aspects of digital sovereignty that apply to the reception and production of texts, from the ability to produce and consume digital texts to the development of a critically-reflexive attitude to these texts (Frederking, 2022; Frederking & Krommer, 2022), making it especially useful in contexts of TEFL teacher education.

This paper is based on an empirical study conducted within the EFL teacher education department of a German metropolitan university during the 2023 summer term. It analyses 21 student essays written after an interactive 90-minute training session on ChatGPT conducted in three intact TEFL teacher education seminars.

Qualitative content analysis is used to identify domains of digital text sovereignty discussed in these essays, and to identify key themes related to four aspects of digital text sovereignty: Mediality, Source Code, Intentionality, and Veracity. The findings might be of interest for researchers and teachers educators interested in (a) modelling digital text sovereignty as it applies to AI, and (b) developing teacher education material and programs that target digital text sovereignty in an AI context, or that aim to support (future) teachers in developing an AI-informed pedagogy.