Translanguaging-informed critical use of GenAI to support EAL learners

In their use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), EAL educators can both reinforce and challenge dominant language ideologies, reflected in how large language models tend to privilege standardized practices in English, Indigenous, and other named languages (Stap & Araabi, 2023; Lau, 2024). This presentation explores how developing and enacting a translanguaging stance—a belief system for leveraging learners’ full linguistic repertoires holistically (García et al., 2017)—can support the critical use of GenAI in EAL instruction, especially when the educator and their students do not share a similar linguistic and cultural background. Drawing on his Design-Based Research (DBR) project, the presenter demonstrates how ChatGPT was used in translanguaging-informed ways to make instructional materials more linguistically and culturally responsive for teaching Japanese exchange students in a sociolinguistics course. This work involved the deliberate integration of: (1) translanguaging theory grounded in antiracist, decolonial, and poststructuralist perspectives (Li, 2018); (2) emerging knowledge of Japanese language and sociocultural norms; (3) complementary digital tools such as DeepL to support proofreading and cross-checking translingual outputs where appropriate; and (4) the linguistic and cultural expertise of students and colleagues, including a teaching assistant proficient in Japanese. Through short practice-based vignettes, the presentation illustrates how such critical GenAI use strategies can potentially help identify, negotiate, and disrupt deficit-oriented language ideologies embedded in GenAI-generated output. The findings highlight both the pedagogical possibilities and ideological tensions of GenAI use, and offer practical implications for EAL educators seeking to design or revise teaching materials through a translanguaging-informed, socially just lens in Canada and beyond.