Exploring the Influence of Large Language Models (LLMs) on English Learners and their Teachers

Abstract

More and more English learners and teachers are using LLMs for different purposes in the contemporary world. Besides the multi-functional use of LLMs, most users are attracted by LLMs' convenience. LLMs do benefit students and teachers in numerous ways. Students can improve their paraphrasing techniques and acquire alternations on different linguistic features such as grammar. Teachers can save time in lesson planning and assessing students' work. These benefits are enormous, but simultaneously cause alarms on students and teachers. Specifically, LLMs are becoming a panacea and students and teachers tend to rely heavily on LLMs. If students want to paraphrase something, they will resort to QuillBot and copy and paste its result into their paper. Some students even lost confidence in writing. To reduce their work in teaching, teachers are also prone to replace human instruction with LLMs for the majority of the time. The over-reliance on LLMs leads to a lack of practice in problem-solving and critical thinking abilities. Students skip the analysis part and teachers fail to bring about human-generated unique creativity to class. Suggestions are made to help students and teachers use LLMs properly.