TYPE Mini Review PUBLISHED 20 November 2024 DOI 10.3389/feduc.2024.1490067 OPEN ACCESS EDITED BY Raona Williams, Ministry of Education, United Arab Emirates REVIEWED BY Kee-Man Chuah, University of Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia *CORRESPONDENCE Beatriz Peña-Acuña beatriz.pa@dfilo.uhu.es RECEIVED 02 September 2024 ACCEPTED 23 October 2024 PUBLISHED 20 November 2024 CITATION Peña-Acuña B and Corga Fernandes Durão R (2024) Learning English as a second language with artificial intelligence for prospective teachers: a systematic review. Front. Educ. 9:1490067. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1490067 COPYRIGHT © 2024 Peña-Acuña and Corga Fernandes Durão. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Learning English as a second language with artificial intelligence for prospective teachers: a systematic review Beatriz Peña-Acuña 1 * and Rosana Corga Fernandes Durão 2 1 Faculty of Education, University of Huelva, Huelva, Spain, 2 Escola Superior de Educação e Comunicação, University of Algarve, Faro, Portugal Introduction: Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing English language teaching with personalized assessments and advanced tools, though more studies are needed on its effectiveness and equitable accessibility. Method: A systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted using articles from Web of Science, Scopus, and ERIC to establish theoretical foundations. Results: AI in learning English as a second language offers personalized tools such as chatbots, pronunciation improvement apps, and platforms that adapt content according to student progress. Discussion: The study highlights how AI is revolutionizing English learning by personalizing lessons, improving pronunciation, and promoting cultural understanding. KEYWORDS artificial intelligence, computer assisted instruction, educational research, language learning, teacher education 1 Introduction Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the assessment of English as a Foreign language (hereinafter ESL) learning by combining traditional pedagogical methodologies with advanced technologies (Huang, 2020) to provide more accurate and personalized assessments (Al-Jaward, 2023). These tools allow large volumes of data to be analyzed in real time, providing teachers with detailed information about each student’s strengths and weaknesses, facilitating rapid adjustments in teaching methods (Chinda et al., 2022; Lesia et al., 2022). Moreover, these digital tools are being examined to see if they are really effective for language learning (Rosell, 2021), as Papua app (Peña-Acuña and Crismán-Pérez, 2022) that includes AI for developing pronunciation in second language. Questionnaire has been developed (Henrichsen, 2018) to investigate the effectiveness of computer assisted pronunciation of second language learning through apps. An AI-driven teaching approach differentiates between adaptive second language learning applications, which personalize content, and interactive applications, which encourage conversational practice and real-time feedback. There are chatbots for conversation, tutoring, simulation, recommendation and emotional support, using natural language processing and machine learning technologies to enhance language learning. There are language learning chatbots that use AI, AR and gamification. Frontiers in Education 01 frontiersin.org