Generation AI: are we still just language teachers? With Paul Breen

Today I’m in conversation with Paul Breen, Senior Digital Learning Developer at UCL to get his take on how EAP and ‘hub’ disciplines should be adapting in the wake of AI. We often hear about the need to ‘embrace’ AI, so we try to unpack what this actually means. 

EAP practitioners and learning developers are often looked at as the ones to help students navigate the demands and conventions of academia, so who better than to set students straight on what constitutes appropriate use, what a purple traffic light means on an assignment brief and the myriad capabilities and limitations of Chat GPT. But how many EAP teachers feel qualified to deal with these issues? Paul and I talk about this and a range of other topics, such as how EAP teachers from the past would react to today’s EAP, the need for language proficiency, translanguaging, the relevance of certification, and more. 

Paul Breen is Senior Digital Learning Developer and Lecturer in EAP at UCL Centre for Languages and International Education. His research interests are in educational technology, language and identity and social justice. He is the author of Developing Educators in the Digital Age.

Further reading

Breen, P. (2018). Developing Educators for the Digital Age: A Framework for Capturing Knowledge in Action. London: University of Westminster Press.