Artificial Intelligence in EFL and Academic Writing: Pedagogical, Ethical, and Critical Perspectives from Global Higher Education

Artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative and multimodal systems, is rapidly transforming English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education and academic writing in higher education. AI tools are increasingly used for drafting, feedback, assessment, translation, and language practice, offering new opportunities for personalized learning and instructional support. At the same time, their growing presence raises critical pedagogical, ethical, and epistemological questions related to authorship, learner autonomy, academic integrity, and the nature of academic literacy. This special issue brings together empirical studies, classroom interventions, qualitative inquiries, and systematic reviews to provide a comprehensive and context-sensitive examination of how AI is reshaping language learning and academic writing. A central focus of the special issue is the pedagogical impact of AI tools on learners’ motivation, engagement, and language development. Several studies show that AI-based feedback and tutoring systems, such as ChatGPT and other AI tutors, can enhance students’ confidence, reduce anxiety, and support more consistent learning behaviors. Learners particularly value the immediacy, personalization, and accessibility of AI feedback, which can compensate for limited instructional time and large class sizes. Empirical findings across multiple contexts indicate improvements in sentence structure, vocabulary use, grammatical accuracy, text organization, and descriptive writing when AI tools are integrated into classroom practice in a guided and pedagogically structured manner. The studies included in this special issue represent diverse higher education contexts, including Saudi Arabia, China, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Malaysia, Philippines, Ukraine, Slovakia, India, and Vietnam. This international coverage highlights the importance of examining AI integration within multilingual, culturally diverse, and often under-researched educational settings, where institutional readiness, policy development, and teacher support remain uneven.