AI didactics in language teaching: Staff professional development • AI-resilient tasks • Bias & hallucination

This Handbook is the result of a week-long Blended Intensive Programme, convened by the Language Centre at European University Cyprus to examine how language teaching can respond to the arrival of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). From the beginning, the aim was to create a practical resource for university language centres, which are facing an unprecedented challenge to established ways of teaching and assessing. Throughout the week, delegates delivered presentations and carried out workshop activities designed to foreground the issues and explore potential solutions. We then made use of GenAI tools (specifically ChatGPT 5.2, Gamma.app and DALL-E) to expand these suggestions into a fuller resource intended for use at and beyond university language centres. While some of the text in this handbook was AI generated, the ideas and frameworks are the authors’ own.
We do not claim to have all the answers, but we hope these resources will be useful in starting conversations and supporting decision-making under real working conditions. We are particularly aware that the nature of language teaching work—often involving a high number of part-time collaborators—can make sustained shared practice and coordinated professional development difficult. Colleagues may have uneven access to training, different levels of confidence, and limited time to experiment, reflect, and redesign materials. We have tried to keep these constraints in view throughout, and we welcome suggestions for amendments to future editions.