AI and Advanced ESL Learners: Shaping Effective Teamwork

AI in ESL is no longer a new topic for discussion. Both educators and learners have come to terms with it, and many may agree that using AI effectively and ethically can be a way to move forward in language teaching and learning. Therefore, for both parties, having an effective collaboration, which I like to call “teamwork”, is no longer necessarily seen as academically unethical, but can also be very helpful in supporting language learning.

In this blog post, I am going to describe why advanced ESL students have increasingly turned to AI and incorporated it into their learning journey, as well as how they use AI to achieve effective learning outcomes. In the end, I will highlight how this journey can contribute to their growth.

What do I mean by “teamwork” in the context of AI and ESL?

By “teamwork,” I refer to the idea that learners use AI responsibly, ethically, and intentionally to improve their English and become more competent learners without losing their voice, identity, or ownership of their work to AI. This way, both parties can feel happy, although I know that’s a super weird thing to say about an AI. After all, AI is not human and therefore cannot really meet us in that way!

But the idea of teamwork is useful because it emphasizes that the learner remains an active participant. AI can support the process, but the learner still makes decisions, provides the ideas, evaluates the output, and takes responsibility for the final product.

Three Important Reasons Why Advanced ESL Learners Use AI

Accuracy, organization of thoughts, and professionalism

When asked, many advanced ESL learners still feel hesitant and unsure about certain aspects of language use. Even at an advanced level, they may feel that they need that final round of polishing and revision from an AI tool.

Another reason is that AI can help organize ideas and give direction to thoughts, especially in writing tasks. Many of my students, when writing research papers or longer essays, have told me that AI is very helpful in creating an outline based on their own ideas.

And the third reason is to appear professional, especially in professional correspondence such as email writing. Students have collectively said that AI can help them maintain a professional tone and structure while communicating their message to their audience.

Let’s not forget that AI can do many of these tasks much faster than a human, which can save learners a lot of time!

How do advanced ESL students use AI to get the best results?

This is very important. In fact, this is the focus of this blog post: HOW advanced ESL learners use AI effectively and responsibly.

The students who approach AI as a form of “teamwork” emphasize the role of prompt engineering when working with AI. And this is where collaboration really comes in.

A prompt is not simply a request to AI to “do my work.” It can be a way for learners to communicate their own goals, ideas, expectations, and boundaries. In their prompts, students can maintain their own voice and autonomy instead of simply tossing everything over to AI.

Students can ask AI to help them with punctuation, for example, and ask it to explain why something may be incorrect instead of simply asking it to rewrite the whole text. They can ask for examples, compare different versions, critically question an AI response, or ask for an explanation of a genre or rhetorical convention they do not understand.

In this way, they are not simply receiving an answer. They are interacting with the tool, evaluating what it gives them, and making decisions about what to accept, change, or reject.

So, as a teacher myself, I wonder if we should begin teaching some elements of prompt engineering even at lower levels in our classrooms_ not necessarily to teach students how to make AI do everything for them, but to establish both the skill and the culture of collaborating with AI responsibly.

This could help learners develop better AI knowledge and confidence, and, eventually, perhaps even creating their own AI agents!

The outcome: confidence, competence, and ownership

In the end, effective teamwork with AI is not simply about producing a polished piece of writing more quickly. It can also be about becoming more confident in using English, more aware of how language and genres work, and better able to navigate technology critically.

In short, collaborating with AI through the perspective of “teamwork” can help advanced ESL learners develop their voice and autonomy while becoming more confident and competent in both language and technology. The key is not simply knowing how to use AI but knowing how to use it without giving up ownership of our own learning.