A Systematic Review of AI-Integrated Tools in ESL/EFL Education

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools have demonstrated sophisticated capabilities, offering immediate support in various fields, including English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) education. Delivering immediate support, the AI tools promptly answer queries and provide helpful explanations in various fields. EFL/ESL educators still have varied sentiments about the AI’s noteworthy capacities and impressive skills in accomplishing different tasks in the second language teaching domain. The twofold purpose of this review is to identify recent publications pertinent to the AI integration in ESL education, with a focus on methodology, commonly used AI applications, pedagogical approaches, and sampling strategies. Secondly, it aims to understand the most frequently used keywords and countries with the highest number of publications. In conducting the exploration, guidelines based on Shaffril et al. (2021) were followed, including the seven steps: review protocol, formulation of research question, systematic searching strategies, quality appraisal, data extraction, data synthesis, and data demonstration. The review involved 921 articles from the Scopus, Web of Science (WoS), and ScienceDirect databases, from which 25 articles were selected for comprehensive analysis based on relevance, following systematic review protocols. The selection criteria included pertinent keywords, field of study, and an emphasis on the studies that focused on the AI-integration in the ESL/EFL education. Finally, the review synthesised the findings of 25 articles. The results revealed that the recent studies have integrated the AI-applications in the ESL/EFL contexts, which predominantly emphasised a varied range of AI-based applications. Particularly, ChatGPT and Wordtune are listed as the key sources for language augmentation. The research studies focused on the pedagogical implications for ESL students and teachers to enhance language teaching and learning practices. The AI tools enhance the ESL/EFL education by improving writing skills through real-time grammar feedback, personalised content suggestions, and automated assessments, fostering learner autonomy, and engagement. The results showed the most frequently used keywords and countries with more publications. Despite being confined to the most recent literature available, this review highlights gaps in the AI-driven ESL education, offering valuable insights for future research on the AI's pedagogical applications.