Prompting for growth

Abstract The rapid development of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has introduced new opportunities for interpreter education, particularly in creating interactive, adaptive and personalized learning environments. This study investigated how undergraduate students taking a Chinese-to-English consecutive interpreting course (with English as their B language) engaged strategically with a customized GenAI assistant over eight weeks. Drawing on more than 600 recorded prompts and iterative class reflections collected across four exercises, we examined the way the students progressed from passive content requests to metacognitively informed dialogic interactions with GenAI. Guided by a dual framework aimed at integrating interpreter competence and metacognitive development models, the course embedded GenAI use within pedagogical scaffolding, including peer collaboration and instructor-led discussions. The students showed a clear progression in their prompting behavior, increasingly demonstrating strategic planning, critical feedback evaluation and reflective learning. Once the students had the skills to engage in meaningful goal-oriented prompting, they used GenAI not merely as a feedback tool, but also as a dialogic learning partner. These findings underscore GenAI’s potential not just as a technological aid, but also as a catalyst for developing autonomy, critical thinking and metacognitive awareness. This study highlights the importance of aligning GenAI integration with intentional pedagogy to support deep human-centered learning in interpreter training.