JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION最新文献

Initial Indications of Generative AI Influence in Linguistics Research Abstracts: Evidence From a Large‐Scale Lexical Frequency Analysis Between 2018 and 2025 生成式人工智能对语言学研究影响的初步迹象摘要：来自2018 - 2025年大规模词汇频率分析的证据

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-10-21 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70094

Elouise Botes, Jean‐Marc Dewaele, Joanne Colling, Ziwen Teuber

{"title":"Initial Indications of Generative AI Influence in Linguistics Research Abstracts: Evidence From a Large‐Scale Lexical Frequency Analysis Between 2018 and 2025","authors":"Elouise Botes, Jean‐Marc Dewaele, Joanne Colling, Ziwen Teuber","doi":"10.1111/modl.70094","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70094","url":null,"abstract":"Generative AI and large language models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, have transformed many working practices, including scientific writing. Previous large‐scale studies have identified shifts in the use of certain stylistic markers, such as the word delve , in disciplines like biomedicine, engineering and computer science, yet comparable evidence from the humanities remains scarce. Using lexical frequency analysis, we examined the prevalence of 28 AI‐associated stylistic markers across 129,338 published abstracts from 592 linguistics journals between 2018 and 2025. Counterfactual modelling suggested that approximately 16% of abstracts published in 2025 exhibited frequencies of AI‐associated stylistic markers above levels expected from pre‐LLM trends (95% CI = 14.46%–17.44%). Furthermore, higher‐prestige journals exhibited slightly greater AI‐associated marker word frequency. Country‐level differences indicated particularly higher AI‐word usage in abstracts from Asia and the Middle East. While lexical frequencies provide only indirect evidence of LLM use, the findings suggest that linguistic patterns previously associated with LLM‐assisted writing have become increasingly prevalent in linguistics publications.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149226199","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Choosing to Study Abroad, Work Abroad, or Stay Home: Do Socioeconomic Status, International Posture, and Language Proficiency Make a Difference? 选择出国留学，在国外工作，还是呆在家里：社会经济地位，国际地位和语言能力有区别吗？

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-10-15 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70093

Yunjung (Yunie) Ku, Hae In Park

{"title":"Choosing to Study Abroad, Work Abroad, or Stay Home: Do Socioeconomic Status, International Posture, and Language Proficiency Make a Difference?","authors":"Yunjung (Yunie) Ku, Hae In Park","doi":"10.1111/modl.70093","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70093","url":null,"abstract":"Embracing “the political economy turn,” applied linguistics has increasingly examined socioeconomic class as a central construct in language learning. Prior research highlights links between socioeconomic status (SES) and learning outcomes, often contributing to divides such as the English Divide in South Korea. Yet few studies have systematically incorporated perceived SES as a predictor of learners’ language learning choices. Two additional constructs—international posture and initial proficiency—also remain underexplored despite their potential to shape learners’ selection of learning contexts. To address these gaps, this study examines three groups in Korea ( n = 207)—study abroad sojourners, working holidaymakers, and at‐home students—with respect to their perceived SES, initial proficiency, and international posture, using the Douglas Fir Group's three‐level framework. Mixed‐methods data were collected through surveys, elicited imitation tasks, and interviews, and analyzed through a multinomial logistic regression and thematic analysis. The findings revealed that perceived SES, initial proficiency, and posture collectively predicted learners’ choices across micro‐, meso‐, and macro‐levels. This study demonstrates how individual difference variables interact with meso‐level structures and broader macro‐level sociocultural ideologies, ultimately shaping learners’ decision‐making processes and language learning trajectories.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"13 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149172756","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Pluriliteracies Teaching for Deeper Learning: An Investigation of Materials Development in the Basque Country 面向深度学习的多元文化教学：巴斯克地区材料开发的调查

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-10-13 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70095

Darío Luis Banegas, Dandan Chen, Do Coyle

{"title":"Pluriliteracies Teaching for Deeper Learning: An Investigation of Materials Development in the Basque Country","authors":"Darío Luis Banegas, Dandan Chen, Do Coyle","doi":"10.1111/modl.70095","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70095","url":null,"abstract":"Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning (PTDL) focuses on the development of learners’ disciplinary literacies in additional languages. This study investigates teacher‐made materials through PTDL within a government‐supported initiative in the Basque Country (2022–2026). Drawing on a continuing professional development (CPD) programme with 69 primary and secondary teachers, we examine (1) how teachers constructed professional knowledge to design PTDL‐oriented materials, and (2) what characteristics these materials displayed. Situated in a pragmatist paradigm, the study uses qualitative data generated ecologically across the CPD: group discussions, 143 written reflections, 69 action‐research plans, 138 lesson plans, 301 teaching artefacts and 162 mentoring sessions. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Findings indicate an iterative, practice‐driven sequence—considering context, languaging, analysing examples, revisiting policy and enacting/reflecting (CLARE)—through which teachers developed PTDL understandings and teacher language awareness. The resulting materials were typically multilingual, multimodal and oriented to cognitive discourse functions. We propose four interconnected principles for teacher‐made PTDL materials: contextual relevance, cognitive‐linguistic integrative development, inclusiveness and engagement. The study advances materials development scholarship by evidencing how PTDL can be operationalised through teacher agency in CPD and by offering transferable heuristics for designing pluriliteracies‐focused classroom resources.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"271 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149172489","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Rethinking Second Language Anxiety: Looking Beyond the Classic View of the Anxiety → Achievement Relationship 第二语言焦虑的再思考：超越焦虑→成就关系的经典观点

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-10-10 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70092

Abdullah A. Alamer, Richard L. Sparks, Philip S. Dale

{"title":"Rethinking Second Language Anxiety: Looking Beyond the Classic View of the Anxiety → Achievement Relationship","authors":"Abdullah A. Alamer, Richard L. Sparks, Philip S. Dale","doi":"10.1111/modl.70092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70092","url":null,"abstract":"A large and emerging body of evidence has challenged the classic view that L2 anxiety is a causal factor in L2 learning achievement and that when anxiety is mitigated, L2 proficiency improves. This classic “anxiety → achievement” view has three major problems. First, studies frequently draw causal conclusions from cross‐sectional associations, even though such designs cannot establish temporal precedence and are highly vulnerable to reverse causality and confounding. Second, common L2 anxiety self‐report instruments embed language skills and self‐perceived competence within item content, inflating anxiety–achievement correlations. Third, the classic view on anxiety has developed an “anxiety monoculture”: a persistent tendency to favor the affective interpretation “anxiety → achievement” while neglecting rival explanations, language‐related confounds, and falsification‐oriented designs. In this paper, we synthesize evidence from longitudinal and experimental work indicating that language achievement more plausibly precedes anxiety than the reverse, and provide pedagogical implications that highlight emotional support as an important resource in the process rather than a key causal factor. We then propose an alternative research agenda for the new view on L2 anxiety comprising four components: (a) stronger causal‐inference designs, including longitudinal and experimental approaches; (b) improved measurement standards that decouple anxiety from language ability; (c) explicit accounting for language achievement and L2 aptitude measures when modeling the anxiety–achievement relationship; and (d) reconceptualizing anxiety as a reflection of the learner's concurrent level of language proficiency, which can decrease as language competence and language achievement grow. We argue that progress in conceptualizing L2 anxiety depends crucially on moving beyond past designs and interpretations by adopting these recommendations.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"24 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149140455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

The Language That Stays: A Longitudinal Inquiry Into Emotion, Motivation, and Identity Negotiation Among Learners of Chinese 语言不变：对汉语学习者情感、动机和身份协商的纵向调查

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-09-28 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70091

Fubiao Zhen, Wei Dong Shi, Sandra Acosta

{"title":"The Language That Stays: A Longitudinal Inquiry Into Emotion, Motivation, and Identity Negotiation Among Learners of Chinese","authors":"Fubiao Zhen, Wei Dong Shi, Sandra Acosta","doi":"10.1111/modl.70091","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70091","url":null,"abstract":"The present study explores the role of emotions in Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) learners’ motivation and identity negotiation. Using a longitudinal qualitative design, we followed six US‐based university students over two academic years, collecting data through semesterly interviews, observation notes, and email correspondence. To capture the dynamic and idiosyncratic nature of participants’ emotional experiences, we analyzed the data both across participants and within individual cases over multiple time points. Findings suggest that emotion was an active dimension of identity negotiation, as participants’ emotional experiences constantly interacted with their language learning identities. Emotions of different valences often coexisted and worked together over time, contributing to learners’ continued engagement with Chinese. In this CFL learning context, where instrumental incentives were not always salient, the emotions participants experienced and the attachments they developed through learning helped sustain their investment in Chinese learning even when their learning goals were not clearly articulated. This study contributes to existing research by exploring the emotional dimension and proposing a more process‐oriented understanding of emotional experience in language learning.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149123223","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Conceptions of Research Limitations in Qualitative Language Education Studies: Residues of Positivism 质性语言教育研究的局限性观念：实证主义的残余

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-09-22 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70090

William S. Pearson, Seyyed‐Abdolhamid Mirhosseini

{"title":"Conceptions of Research Limitations in Qualitative Language Education Studies: Residues of Positivism","authors":"William S. Pearson, Seyyed‐Abdolhamid Mirhosseini","doi":"10.1111/modl.70090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70090","url":null,"abstract":"Research limitations constitute reflexive moves in research reports where authors unapologetically highlight methodological weaknesses or caveats relating to knowledge claims that serve to pre‐empt reader criticism and avoid misunderstandings. As such, limitations offer insight into the epistemological beliefs and assumptions of authors towards their research. In this qualitative content analysis, the stated limitations of 136 qualitative language education research studies were analysed to identify the features of research authors considered as limitations. These emerged as four themes, including sampling and context, data sources and evidence base, conceptual and substantive coverage and research processes. Intersecting the themes are the epistemological positionings of authors, which primarily indicated post‐positivistic tendencies (particularly in sampling and context), marginally reflected interpretivist ones (mostly in conceptual and substantive coverage) and occasionally projected a mixture of both (research processes). As an implication, we encourage language education researchers to align their reporting of research limitations with their underlying qualitative epistemology, so as to ensure appropriate interpretation by readers.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"246 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-09-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149124461","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Prompt Sensitivity in AI Writing: A Methodological Caution for Corpus‐Based Analysis of AI‐Generated Language 人工智能写作的快速敏感性：人工智能生成语言基于语料库分析的方法论谨慎

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-08-21 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70089

Peter Crosthwaite, Shuyi (Amelia) Sun, Feng (Kevin) Jiang

{"title":"Prompt Sensitivity in AI Writing: A Methodological Caution for Corpus‐Based Analysis of AI‐Generated Language","authors":"Peter Crosthwaite, Shuyi (Amelia) Sun, Feng (Kevin) Jiang","doi":"10.1111/modl.70089","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70089","url":null,"abstract":"Recent corpus‐based studies suggest generative AI systems such as ChatGPT can approximate human patterns of interpersonal metadiscourse in argumentative writing. These conclusions are typically based on AI‐generated texts produced using a single prompt, despite AI output being highly sensitive to even minor changes in prompt specification. This study examines prompt specificity as an elicitation variable in the production of metadiscourse. Using Hyland's interpersonal metadiscourse framework, we first compared university students’ argumentative essays from the LOCNESS corpus with GPT‐generated essays produced in response to a general essay (baseline) prompt specifying role, genre, topic, length and persuasive purpose, but providing no explicit guidance regarding metadiscourse use. We then generated a second GPT corpus using a metadiscourse‐inducing prompt that explicitly requested interactive, interactional, and engagement features that were found to be underrepresented in the initial GPT corpus relative to the LOCNESS corpus. The baseline prompt produced lower frequencies of transitions, hedges, self‐mention, attitude markers and engagement resources than human writing, while the metadiscourse‐inducing prompt substantially increased several target features over the baseline and human conditions. Some categories converged with baseline frequencies, but even where convergence occurred, these were often realised in more formulaic ways. The findings show prompt specificity significantly shapes both the distribution and rhetorical realisation of metadiscourse in AI‐generated writing. More broadly, the results highlight the importance of treating prompt specification as a key methodological variable when interpreting linguistic patterns in AI‐generated texts.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148767956","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Alignment and Misalignment Between L2 Spanish Instructional Practices and Heritage Language Learner Backgrounds and Needs 第二语言西班牙语教学实践与传统语言学习者背景和需求的契合与错位

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-08-06 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70083

Kacie Hoagland, Catherine Schroeder, Paul D. Toth

{"title":"Alignment and Misalignment Between L2 Spanish Instructional Practices and Heritage Language Learner Backgrounds and Needs","authors":"Kacie Hoagland, Catherine Schroeder, Paul D. Toth","doi":"10.1111/modl.70083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70083","url":null,"abstract":"This classroom case study documents how two heritage language learners (HLLs) in a university‐level Spanish class mixed with second language learners (L2Ls) engaged with instructional affordances and ultimately achieved divergent academic outcomes. Within an action research framework, our study draws on sociocognitive and identity theories to demonstrate how the focal participants’ behavior reflected variable investments in particular classroom activities, which in turn were rooted in broader pedagogical and linguistic ideologies. We use the terms alignment and misalignment to describe the extent to which the classroom activities legitimized the background knowledge, identities, and personal histories of our focal learners as starting points for learning. Our analysis suggests that although our participants demonstrated remarkable linguistic resources for critical thinking and self‐expression, tasks requiring metalinguistic analyses posed challenges that made “good language learner” identities more difficult for them to achieve than their L2L peers. We discuss theoretical explanations for HLLs’ investment in classroom activity and suggestions for adapting instructional support to better meet the needs of learners from all sociolinguistic backgrounds.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"234 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148693318","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Interleaved Practice in L2 Grammar Learning: Variation Across Grammatical Patterns and Cue Reliability 二语语法学习的交错练习：语法模式的变化与提示信度

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-07-28 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70082

Ying Xiong, Shiyu Wu

{"title":"Interleaved Practice in L2 Grammar Learning: Variation Across Grammatical Patterns and Cue Reliability","authors":"Ying Xiong, Shiyu Wu","doi":"10.1111/modl.70082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70082","url":null,"abstract":"This study examined how interleaved and blocked practice schedules were associated with the learning of different grammatical patterns in adult second language (L2) learners, and how these patterns varied across learning contexts differing in cue reliability. Two experiments were conducted with native Mandarin‐speaking learners with no prior exposure to French. Experiment 1 examined interleaved and blocked practice across French morphological and syntactic constructions, with subject–verb agreement providing relatively consistent form–meaning mappings. Experiment 2 retained comparable syntactic constructions but replaced the French agreement system with a semi‐artificial morphological paradigm involving less consistent cue–outcome mappings. Across both experiments, interleaved practice was associated with increased difficulty during learning but generally higher performance at the test, particularly at the immediate posttest. Under more reliable cue conditions, this advantage diminished over time, whereas under less reliable cue conditions, it remained more evident at delayed testing. Differences between morphology and syntax were also observed across tasks and practice conditions, suggesting that practice‐schedule effects were related to the structural and processing properties of the target constructions. Overall, the findings suggest that the effectiveness of interleaving in L2 grammar learning depends not only on the practice schedule, but also on the characteristics of the target constructions and the reliability of the cues available to learners.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148595536","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

AI for Applied Linguistics: Repositioning Applied Linguistics Within an AI‐Mediated Paradigm 应用语言学中的人工智能：在人工智能介导的范式中重新定位应用语言学

3区文学

JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION Pub Date : 2026-07-24 DOI: 10.1111/modl.70084

Ken Hyland, Feng (Kevin) Jiang

{"title":"AI for Applied Linguistics: Repositioning Applied Linguistics Within an AI‐Mediated Paradigm","authors":"Ken Hyland, Feng (Kevin) Jiang","doi":"10.1111/modl.70084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.70084","url":null,"abstract":"This commentary proposes AI for Applied Linguistics, hereafter AI4AL, as a framework for studying how artificial intelligence is changing language use, language learning and applied linguistic inquiry. Rather than treating AI primarily as a tool for automation, we argue that applied linguistics should examine AI through four connected lines of work. These are AI as a research instrument, AI as an object of applied linguistic inquiry, AI as a site of conceptual renewal and AI as a problem of pedagogy, policy and social justice. We ground this framework in applied linguistics’ long‐standing concern with language as situated social practice, while recognising that contemporary AI systems now participate in writing, translation, feedback, assessment, interaction and knowledge production. The commentary clarifies the scope of AI by distinguishing between predictive, classificatory, assistive and generative systems, with particular attention to the conceptual significance of generative AI. It then develops four domains of inquiry in writing and literacy, genre and discourse, pragmatics and interaction and multilingualism and inequality. AI4AL is presented as a disciplinary agenda through which applied linguistics can study, evaluate and shape AI‐mediated communication.","PeriodicalId":42049,"journal":{"name":"JOURNAL OF THE MIDWEST MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION","volume":"123 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"148587180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0