ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN EFL CLASSROOMS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF RESPONSIBLE USE

The incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into educational contexts has expanded significantly, generating new opportunities for personalized instruction, real-time feedback, and enhanced learner autonomy. Nevertheless, the governance of AI use in academic settings has simultaneously provoked critical debates concerning academic integrity, assessment validity, and ethical accountability. Although prior scholarship has explored individual AI applications or addressed ethical considerations at a theoretical level, comprehensive pedagogical guidelines for practical classroom implementation remain insufficiently articulated. This study conducts a systematic literature review of empirical studies and policy documents published between 2019 and 2025, adhering to PRISMA protocols, to consolidate evidence regarding both the pedagogical benefits and institutional challenges of AI integration in EFL education. Employing thematic analysis, the review delineates recurring instructional affordances, structural risks, and contextual mediators influencing AI effectiveness. Building upon this synthesis, the study advances an original rule-based conceptual framework that translates human-centered AI principles into explicit pedagogical directives articulated as concrete do’s and don’ts for EFL classroom practice. The findings indicate that AI contributes meaningfully to EFL learning outcomes only when strategically embedded within robust pedagogical design, transparent assessment frameworks, and sustained teacher facilitation. By converting ethical and theoretical discourse into operational classroom guidance, this research provides a practice-oriented contribution for educators, curriculum developers, and policymakers pursuing responsible and sustainable AI integration in EFL environments.