esp teachers’ perceptions of the integration of chatgpt in language education

The growth of chatgpt as an ai-based instrument forimproving efl performance has received much attention fromlinguistic and cognitive perspectives. despite its importance, espteachers’ perceptions of chatgpt are still in their infancy. to thispurpose, 30 language teachers across iran were purposefullyrecruited to participate in this study through snowball sampling.the inclusion criterion was the implementation of chatgptthrough classroom instruction, regardless of its extent. theresearcher also asked the teachers to keep a record of eventsrelated to chatgpt and reflect on their experiences for asemester. along with this set of data, the researcher collectedanother set of data through semi-interviews. the interviews wereconducted in persian over skype and google meet. the data wereanalyzed using content analysis. the results of the study show thatchatgpt saves teachers’ time, improves their efficiency, andincreases the chances of engaging reticent and resistant students.however, they were concerned that dependency on chatgptmakes students allocate less time and energy to learning a newlanguage and threatens their creativity. the results of the studyhave implications for teachers, students, and policymakers.