Integrating Artificial Intelligence in English Language Teaching in Nepal: Narrative Inquiry

Abstract

The rapid development of artificial intelligence has brought revolutionary opportunities to English language teaching worldwide, yet the consequences of these technologies on teachers in poor and developing countries like Nepal remain poorly studied. The presented qualitative narrative inquiry research question examines the perceptions, experiences, and paths of English language teachers at the secondary and tertiary levels in Nepal regarding the adoption of AI tools in their teaching. The study used narrative inquiry methodology as part of a constructivist epistemological approach to collect data through in-depth semi-structured interviews and reflective journals with 12 purposively sampled English teachers in government, private, and university settings across Kathmandu Valley and two Terai districts. The thematic narrative analysis was used to analyse data based on Polkinghorne’s analysis of narratives and the narrative inquiry approach by Clandinin and Connelly. The results indicate a picture of a combination of eager use and deep fear. The stories of pedagogical change include teachers applying AI chatbots to correct grammar and provide writing and speech feedback, using AI for pronunciation training, and generating AI-generated reading materials to distinguish teaching. At the same time, they share stories of digital marginalization, infrastructural insufficiency, serious issues of academic integrity, and epistemological concerns about the effects of AI on genuine language learning. There were five prevailing narrative themes, namely: AI as skills development pedagogical collaborator, the infrastructure paradox promises versus reality, teacher identity and professional renegotiation, student dependency and critical literacy erosion, and institutional inertia and policy vacuum. The research makes theoretical contributions by developing a Contextualised AI-ELT Integration Framework (CAIEF) that considers the sociocultural, infrastructural, and pedagogical peculiarities of ELT in Nepal. It is implied on professional development of teachers, institutional policy, and AI-responsive curriculum design in other similar Global South settings.