Applications and Research Gaps of LLM-based English-as-a-foreign-language Education

Abstract

English as a Foreign Language (EFL) education is crucial in today’s globalized world. With the rapid development of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) over the past few years, educators continuously investigate how to use them to improve EFL educational methods. This article reviews the studies on integrating LLMs with EFL speaking and writing education from 2020 to 2024. It separately summarizes current LLMs’ strengths and weaknesses in improving EFL learner’s skills and learning motivation. This research demonstrates a promising future of applying LLMs in EFL education because of their strong abilities of immediate feedback generation and no-stress communication environment creation. However, they also find their shortages like superficial incorrect feedback. The research gaps in these areas are also analyzed based on these articles, which include uneven participants, the lack of differentiated investigation on samples with different ages and education levels, and the lack of research on various LLMs.