Generative AI Literacy in EFL Teaching: A Review of Age-Related Differences in Teacher Readiness and Adoption

The rapid expansion of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in education has intensified debate about teacher readiness, yet evidence on age-related differences in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts remains limited and conceptually fragmented. This critical review synthesizes emerging research on generative AI literacy in EFL teaching and examines how age and career stage are associated with readiness, resistance, and adoption. Rather than treating age as a direct predictor of technology use, the review considers how reported differences interact with prior digital experience, pedagogical beliefs, professional identity, and institutional support. The literature often suggests that older or more experienced teachers show greater caution toward GenAI, particularly because of concerns about reliability, ethics, academic integrity, and instructional value. However, such caution should not be viewed in deficit terms, as professional experience may also support more critical, selective, and pedagogically grounded engagement with AI tools. The review further shows that many studies generalize teacher readiness without adequately addressing contextual variation across EFL settings. Overall, it argues that age-related differences in GenAI literacy are relational and context-dependent rather than deterministic, and it calls for more theoretically grounded research and differentiated professional development models that reflect the diverse conditions shaping EFL teachers’ engagement with GenAI.

کلیدواژه ها:

Generative artificial intelligence ، AI literacy ، EFL teaching ، teacher readiness ، technology adoption ، age-related differences ، language teacher education