Ethical AI for English Learners: Lessons from Taiwan on Amplifying Voice Without Replacing Thinking

Generative AI is an arrival technology—already in students’ hands, regardless of school policy. This interactive workshop explores how educators can respond ethically and pragmatically for English learners by designing clear, time-bound expectations that protect language development, student agency, and cognitive effort. Grounded in on-the-ground implementation in Taiwan, the session shares a 2025–26 working framework for restricted AI use and a spectrum of AI use developed for multilingual secondary students and aligned with Taiwanese Ministry of Education guidance. Rather than presenting a “best practice,” the workshop frames this work as local science: a set of hypotheses schools can test, evaluate through student work and feedback, and revise over time. Leadership perspective from an on-the-ground administrator in Taiwan surfaces real implementation tensions—academic integrity, equity, clarity for students, and teacher workload—while keeping student experience central. Participants will analyze classroom scenarios, examine how AI boundaries shape student decision-making, and redesign one of their own assignments using a structured, ELL-focused AI-use framework. While rooted in Taiwan, the design principles are immediately transferable to English learners and multilingual classrooms everywhere.