Jackie L. K. Yeoh

DOI: http://doi.org/10.4208/itl.20260103

Innovative Teaching and Learning , Vol. 8 (2026), Iss. 1 : pp. 22–30

Published online:    2026-5

Abstract

This interview with Dr. Freek Olaf de Groot, an Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University, explores the intersection of AI, digital literacy, and language education. Dr. de Groot discusses his serendipitous entry into AI research — sparked by encountering AI-generated student papers in Iraq — and traces how this experience led him to examine human-AI interactions through posthumanist and sociocultural theory lenses. He argues that AI's transformative potential in language education lies not in specific tools or applications but in how learners and educators engage with AI as an interactive "buddy" — a 24/7 resource for provoking thought, refining arguments, and exploring language, rather than a shortcut to answers. The interview also details a recent workshop focused on prompt engineering, where participants explored how changes in phrasing, task framing, and expectations affect AI-generated outputs, emphasizing that the quality of output depends fundamentally on the human user's active engagement. Throughout, Dr. de Groot maintains that while AI will increasingly reshape the learning ecology, learning remains an inherently human activity.

Keywords

Artificial Intelligence (AI), effective prompts, critical AI literacy, human-AI interaction

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