A Tale of Two Fields: A Complex Dynamic Systems Perspective on Generative AI in Language Teaching

A free webinar from TESOL's Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section (CALL-IS). Language teachers and teacher educators increasingly face consequential decisions about generative AI — what to adopt, permit, and convey to students — often without understanding how these systems operate. This session examines prediction, embeddings, and attention as they relate to observed model behavior and considers why language teaching has a distinctive stake in these technologies. Drawing on complex dynamic systems theory, it explores the challenges generic technologies face in accommodating the complexity of language, demonstrates the live, no-code development of small applications designed for a specific lesson and group of learners, and examines systematic errors in AI pronunciation assessment, arguing for interdisciplinary collaboration between applied linguistics and computer science.