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Maram Almaneea, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi ArabiaAbstract
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly embedded in educational environments, language learning is progressively shifting towards personalised, algorithm-driven models that prioritise efficiency and individualised feedback. While AI-mediated platforms provide expanded access to linguistic input, they may inadvertently reduce opportunities for dialogic engagement, intercultural interaction, and collaborative meaning-making; these are communicative dimensions that are central to language development yet remain beyond the reach of algorithmic optimisation. This concern is particularly relevant in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts such as Saudi Arabia, where English functions as a key medium for global academic and professional participation. This study reconceptualises structured classroom debate as a human-centred pedagogical intervention within AI-augmented language learning environments, exploring its role in cultivating intercultural competence, perspective-taking, and communicative adaptability among first-year Saudi female EFL students. Using a one-group, post-intervention design, the study examined the impact of integrating an eight-week structured debate project into a university Listening and Speaking course on students’ perceived intercultural competence. Findings revealed positive developments across all dimensions of intercultural competence, with students reporting heightened awareness of cultural diversity, increased openness to diverse perspectives, and greater confidence in intercultural communication. The results suggest that dialogic, interaction-based pedagogies can serve as an effective human-centred counterbalance to algorithmic learning environments, helping preserve essential relational and communicative dimensions of language education.
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Conference: ECAH2026Stream: Humanities - Teaching and Learning
This paper is part of the ECAH2026 Conference Proceedings (View)
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