EVALUATING THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS OF STUDENTS’ USE OF AI TOOLS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING: SELECTED CASE STUDIES FROM SOUTHEAST NIGERIA

The education sector is also benefiting greatly from the transformative and innovative opportunities offered by artificial intelligence (AI) to the contemporary society. This study evaluates Nigerian tertiary students’ use of AI tools for language learning. It also explores the ethical implications of their use of AI tools. The study is grounded in Technology Acceptance Model, which describes and predicts user acceptance of innovative technology, based perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Data are drawn from 270 questionnaire respondents across three tertiary institutions in Southeast Nigeria. The data are analyzed quantitatively using descriptive and inferential statistics, which include simple percentage, tables, Likert five-scale coding, analytic interpretation, and thematic analysis. The results show that students of Nigerian tertiary institutions use AI tools for academic purposes, including language learning. Their misuse of the tools for plagiarism, malpractice, misinformation, stealing of intellectual, etc. presents negative ethical implications. The negative ethical implications outweigh the positive ones. It is also found that the students mostly use ChatGPT and Grammarly, followed by Google Translate, Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot for language learning and other academic purposes. The study concludes that when used properly, legitimately and formally, there are no ethical implications of using AI tools for language learning and other academic purposes. Among others, the study recommends the enactment of strong AI use policies, and consistent classroom exposure of students to AI education, media literacy, and critical literacy.