AI and Foreign Language Learning: Bridging Classroom Practice and Research. Introduction to the Special Issue

The contributions collected in this special issue respond directly to these challenges. They are organised along a continuum that moves from critical and theoretical reflections on AI-mediated language learning, through course design and inclusive pedagogical frameworks, to empirical investigations of learner–AI interaction and, finally, to emerging forms of semiotic competence prompted by generative AI. Taken together, they demonstrate how classroom practice can and should be connected to theoretical reflection, while advancing the debate on the applications of Gen AI to language education in several key areas. In particular, the contributions foreground the relevance of competences such as AI literacy and transversal skills, adopt a more inclusive perspective which is tailored to diverse learner profiles, and introduce methodological approaches, and among them corpus-based ones, to examine these developments in a new light.