Preparing High School Pre-Service English Teachers for AI Integration: AI Literacy, Ethics, and Classroom Readiness

Artificial intelligence ( AI) is becoming more common in education. For teacher preparation, it presents both advantages and difficulties, particularly in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms. This study investigates how pre-service high school English teachers are prepared to use AI tools. It focuses on three main issues: classroom readiness, ethical awareness, and AI literacy.This study uses a targeted narrative literature review to explore key ideas and earlier research on AI in education, teacher education, and EFL teaching, with special attention to the Iranian educational context. The findings suggest that the effective use of AI in teaching depends on future teachers being able to understand these tools critically and use them with care in the classroom. They need to consider how AI works, how it can contribute to student learning, and how to make responsible decisions about its use in educational settings. It also indicates that AI literacy is the fundamental base for using such instruments. Classroom readiness is the ability to use this knowledge in practice, whereas the notion of ethical awareness is extremely important in order to ensure the protection of student privacy and education of human value. At the same time, the Iranian educational context creates several important challenges. These include limited infrastructure, weaknesses in existing policies, and a lack of strong institutional support. For this reason, teacher education programs need practical strategies that fit local conditions and respond to these specific challenges.The paper also acknowledges the limitations of the review, examines its implications for educational policy and the preparation of EFL teachers, and suggests several directions for future empirical research.

کلیدواژه ها:

artificial intelligence ، AI literacy ، AI ethics ، pre-service teacher education ، English as a foreign language