Artificial intelligence (AI) is a disruptor increasingly impacting foreign language learning and teaching. This paper explores the theoretical framework of AI, its application in foreign language teaching, and the question of whether AI is displacing foreign language teachers. The empirical part presents findings from a survey of English and German teachers (n = 112) in Slovenian primary and secondary schools regarding their views on AI in foreign language teaching. Statistical analysis reveals a constructively critical attitude towards AI among teachers, acknowledging its presence in and influence on teaching strategies, methods, and teacher roles but not perceiving it as a fundamental threat. Furthermore, statistical tests and correlations indicate no significant differences in attitude towards AI in the classroom based on whether they are English or German teachers or whether they work in primary or secondary schools.

This study examines AI-powered transcreation’s role in improving cross-cultural brand communication. We employed GPT-3 to evaluate AI’s ability to enhance global marketing through improved translation and adaptation of brand messages. Traditional translation methods often fail to capture brand-specific emotional resonance across cultures, but AI tools may address this challenge. Our research compared 10 translation students and 10 professional translators in translating/transcreating brand taglines from Persian to English. An initial test without AI showed professionals outperforming students. After six weeks of GPT-3 training, however, students surpassed professionals, as judged by expert raters using standardized criteria. The findings indicate that targeted AI training can improve transcreation quality. The study also underscores the value of human judgment in crafting prompts and choosing optimal AI outputs. These results also offer insights for translation education, professional training, and global marketing strategies.

This study examines how Indonesian university students’ engagement with chatbots influences their English proficiency. While AI tools are increasingly used in language education, little research focuses on chatbot interaction dynamics. The research assesses behavioural (active use), cognitive (perceived value), and emotional (attitudinal) engagement across 150 non-English majors at four proficiency levels (A1–B2). Data from engagement surveys and proficiency tests were analysed using ANOV A, correlation, and regression. Results indicated that higherproficiency students (B1/B2) engaged more intensely with chatbots than their lower-level peers. Behavioural and cognitive engagement strongly correlated with improved language skills, while emotional engagement showed no significant link. Regression analysis identified behavioural and cognitive engagement as key predictors of proficiency gains, suggesting that active interaction and perceived utility of chatbots drive language development. The findings underscore chatbots’ potential as effective language-learning aids.

This paper undertakes a close reading of European classical music forms used as a framing device in the Irish language novel Desiderius a Dó (1995) by Pádraig Ó Cíobháin. Considered one of the seminal novels of modern Irish, Ó Cíobháin’s work contains what the scholar Irina Rajewsky describes as “intramedial references to visual arts, music, cinema, literature and architecture”. Classical music occupies a central place in the novel, and is essential for an understanding of its plot, characterization, narrative and its thematic concern with ideas of binaries and performance. The paper examines absolute music forms characteristic of the classical period in the novel, explores how Ó Cíobháin uses liturgical music and chant, and concludes that the overall effect of the writer’s approach is a reimagination of the Irish language novel within a European frame that is remarkable for the depth and scope it gives the characters and the narrative.

The intrusion of technology into language education is undeniable. However, its impact on English as a Second Language (ESL) learners remains unexplored. This study explores how the text-processing and suggestion features of Microsoft Word affect the English language development of ESL learners. The writing samples show that while beginners make fewer spelling and punctuation errors, prolonged reliance on software weakens long-term language proficiency. This finding is supported by cluster analysis of first-year undergraduates, thirdyear undergraduates, and postgraduates. Conversely, first-year undergraduates learners excel in structuring paragraphs and writing a variety of sentences, which are the areas untouched by automation offered in the tested software. Semi-structured interviews with research-active academics and postgraduate students further validated these findings, highlighting a critical decline in writing confidence due to over-dependence on emerging technology. The study underscores the hidden costs of convenience, urging a recalibration of technology-integrated language pedagogy.

This paper explores the transformative role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, specifically ChatGPT, in the acquisition of English as a foreign language. With the rapid evolution of educational technology, AI-driven chatbots like ChatGPT offer innovative methodologies to augment language teaching and learning. This study examines the potential of ChatGPT to improve English language students’ writing abilities by providing suggestions, corrections and automated assistance. Through a review of existing literature and a discussion of the findings of recent studies, the paper seeks to highlight the benefits and risks of integrating AI tools into language education, especially, in the context of writing. Insights gained from multiple studies suggest that while ChatGPT has the potential to significantly enhance language students’ writing skills in all phases of writing, by promoting engagement, motivation, and autonomy among learners, it also necessitates cautious use to ensure academic integrity and to prevent over-reliance, which in turn, can stifle students’ learning capacities.

The paper explores the use of AI translation tools in EFL classrooms, focusing on metaphor translation. We investigate the attitudes of first- and third-year English students at the University of Rijeka, Croatia, towards AI tools and evaluate three platforms: Google Translate, ChatGPT, and Glosbe, regarding their ability to accurately translate metaphors. The findings show a generally positive student disposition towards AI tools but also highlight frequent inaccuracies in AI-generated metaphor translations. We discuss the implications of these results for EFL teaching, emphasizing the potential value of error correction as a pedagogical tool. Our analysis suggests that the limitations of AI tools can serve as valuable pedagogical resources for fostering critical engagement, improving students’ understanding of culturally and contextually impregnated language, and enhancing their linguistic skills. Our findings underscore the need for an urgent and systematic integration of AI tools into classrooms.

This paper seeks to (re)introduce the largely overlooked Irish writer Florence Daphne Sheridan and critically examine her portrayal of 1950s and 1960s Spain in her short stories written in the 1980s. While other Irish authors such as Kate O’Brien and Pearse Hutchinson have received moderate attention in relation to their depictions of Spain, Sheridan’s literary representation of the country under Franco’s dictatorship remains largely ignored. This study explores Sheridan’s images of Spain using the framework of Imagology Studies, which focuses on the cultural construction of national identity through literary representations. Sheridan’s works offer a distinctive perspective on the intersections of Irish and Spanish cultural relations, moving beyond the romanticized or stereotypical images of Spain often found in British literature. Her fiction captures the complex realities of Spain during its developmental stage under Francoism and focuses on the effects of economic hardship, political oppression, and the influx of tourism.

This study explores the feasibility of using generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek) to automate speech act annotation in Harold Pinter’s play The Birthday Party. Three chatbots – ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek – were tested under three scenarios varying in the amount of theoretical material provided. Each chatbot’s output was compared to a manually annotated reference via a Python script measuring classification accuracy. Scenario 2 produced the highest accuracy overall (75–82%), while Scenario 1 underperformed, owing to incorrect reliance on external typologies, and Scenario 3 showed signs of overfitting. ChatGPT o1 emerged as the most accurate model, achieving 82% accuracy in Scenario 2. The findings suggest that GenAI chatbots can serve as valuable preliminary annotators when good prompt-engineering and well-curated theoretical material are provided. Future research could extend this methodology to more context-dependent texts, further refining promptengineering strategies and exploring larger linguistic corpora.

The influence of the English language can be observed, to a greater or lesser extent, in virtually every world language, and is recognizable in language contact phenomena like borrowing and code-switching. To date, there has been limited research on the widespread use of English in the language of young speakers of Slovene, who encounter English on a daily basis both through education and entertainment. The present study aims to address this research gap by examining the linguistic behaviour of young adult native speakers of Slovene in their everyday informal communication. Drawing on methods of discourse analysis, we quantitatively and qualitatively analyse corpus data obtained through covert audio recording, exploring how the Slovene-English language contact manifests itself in everyday communication among young speakers of Slovene, with close attention paid to code-switching and anglicisms. The results of the study raise the question of language change and the future of languages like Slovene, whose speakers are in close contact with English every day, and suggest further research possibilities in the field of Slovene-English language contact.