Ronglin Shan

Ronglin Shan

March 31, 2026

Generative artificial intelligence, College English teaching, personalized learning, Human-machine collaboration, Teaching paradigm shift, Educational ethics.

Generative Artificial Intelligence, as a disruptive technology, is reshaping various industries with unprecedented depth and breadth, and the field of education is no exception. College English teaching, a crucial component of higher education in China, has long been plagued by challenges such as monotonous teaching models, lack of personalization, insufficient student practice opportunities, and outdated assessment methods. This paper aims to systematically explore the innovative application of Generative AI in college English teaching and analyze how it triggers a profound paradigm shift from a "teacher-centered" to a "student-centered" approach, and from "knowledge transmission" to "capacity building." The article begins by dissecting the core capabilities of Generative AI and its alignment with the objectives of college English teaching. Subsequently, it elaborately constructs specific application scenarios and implementation pathways for Generative AI across four dimensions: "teaching, learning, assessment, and management," including personalized content creation, intelligent tutoring, dynamic assessment, and teaching management optimization. Furthermore, this study objectively examines the ethical risks and practical challenges that may accompany the technological application process, such as academic integrity, technological dependency, data privacy, and the confusion of human-machine roles. Finally, the paper proposes a response strategy framework centered on "teacher as the core, ethics as the bottom line, and integration as the goal," advocating for the construction of a new human-machine collaborative teaching model that is "AI-enhanced" rather than "AI-replacing." Research indicates that the prudent, critical, and creative integration of Generative AI can effectively empower college English teaching, enhance its pertinence, interactivity, and effectiveness, and ultimately serve the comprehensive development of students' language application skills and cross-cultural communication literacy.

© 2026, the Authors. Published by ISCCAC

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license