ChatGPT in ESL Education

ChatGPT in ESL Education: From CALL 3.0 toward CALL 4.0 or on the edge of the event horizon of an AI black hole?
ChatGPT, or generative AI, emerging from advancements in science and digital technology, fascinates both ESL teachers and learners with its unprecedented performance. Meanwhile, there is a growing tendency among scientists and educators not merely to view it as a machine under the control of Homo sapiens, but as a potential new species with intelligence that could pose a threat to humanity. Despite a range of prior studies on ChatGPT or other AI variants in ESL education, focusing primarily on practical applications, there remains a lack of concern regarding fundamental issues associated with their use by ESL teachers and learners (e.g., how it produces the English language and how it should be considered in ESL education). The primary aim of this book is to explore and address the fundamental issues related to ChatGPT from the perspectives of ESL professionals, seeking to better understand ChatGPT and to consider ways to effectively employ it in ESL instruction. To this end, the book adopts the following approaches: (1) tracing the evolutionary development of AI and exploring ChatGPT’s mechanisms and features relevant to ESL instruction; and (2) providing a historical overview of CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) in ESL and examining AI’s potential role in both ESL and CALL.