From Passive Recipients to Active Co-Constructors: Leveraging AI-Powered Languaging to Demystify Academic Research for EAP Students

This paper discussed the results of a study aimed at exploring artificial intelligence (AI) as a languaging tool to achieve better understanding of concepts used in academic research. Grounded in the sociocultural concept of languaging, the study’s rationale is derived from the attempt to explore the extent to which AI may be used as a conversational partner that acts as a scaffolding tool to help learners gain a better understanding of terms such as research questions, hypotheses, methodology, results, limitations. The problem addressed in this study is educators’ concern around the use of AI in academia. The objective of the study is to empirically verify the positive impact of AI tools in the classroom. Thirty two students enrolled in a research-oriented course at one of the universities in Oman took part in the study. The study involved the use of an intervention, a post-intervention test along with students’ reflections on the effectiveness of the intervention. The intervention involved both the teacher and the participants using a prompt engineering framework to co-construct prompts that were used to generate AI output. A post-intervention test shows a significant gain in understanding scientific concepts involved in academic research. Students’ post-intervention reflections confirm the effectiveness of the intervention. The results of the study are significant in that they contribute to the current debate around the adoption of AI tools in education by providing evidence to show that AI can indeed aid teachers in helping learners acquire new knowledge