Episode #34
AI assisted writing: Beyond fear and hype. With Dr Sophia Mavridi.
I’m joined by Dr Sophia Mavridi to talk about her doctoral research: Second language students’ experiences of AI-assisted writing in higher education: A phenomenographic perspective. Sophia identifies six broad categories that emerge when observing students’ use of AI assisted writing, and in this podcast we dive into these categories: achieving better grades, expressing ideas more clearly, managing time/workload, habituating academic writing norms (e.g., criticality/reflective writing), increasing interaction, and increasing sophistication. We go over inferences and implications of GenAI in student writing, how talk to students about developing a voice, and how we do this ourselves in our own writing, the tension between making your writing distinctive while adhering to academic norms, where we should set expectations for undergrads versus PhD students. Plus: AI slop on Linkedin. We also cover Sophia’s paper published last year in Technology in Language Teaching & Learning that critiques institutional responses to GenAI in education including prohibition, avoidance, teacher support, technological enthusiasm, and critical engagement. We discuss directions for language teacher education, including rethinking writing pedagogy, discernment, transparency, teacher educator development, and ethical dilemmas. Speaker Bio Dr Sophia Mavridi is a Senior Lecturer in Educational Technology and TESOL at De Montfort University (UK). She specialises in digital pedagogy, online learning, and AI in education. She has extensive experience in language teacher education, working with organisations such as the British Council, NILE, and Bell Foundation, and is committed to bridging research and practice. https://sophiamavridi.com/ Further reading Watch Sophia’s keynote form the TELSIG symposium earlier this year: Behind the scenes: How students use AI (and what we can learn from it). The survey Sophia alludes to at approximately 55 minutes in is the HEPI Student Generative AI Survey . Mavridi, S. (2025). Hype, Fear, and Everything in Between: A Critical Typology of Responses to AI and their Implications for Language Teacher Education. Technology in Language Teaching & Learning, 7(2), 103219 Available at: https://doi.org/10.29140/tltl.v7n2.103219 Timecodes 00:00 Podcast intro 01:41 Reflections on the PhD Viva 04:55 Teacher identity 08:19 Overview of the PhD research 09:26 Six AI writing categories 11:03 Integrity and voice 14:33 Participants and context 16:55 Self regulating AI use in writing 19:33 Students surprising sophistication 24:45 Struggle in L2 writing 32:12 Why writing still matters 38:19 Academic norms versus authorial voice 44:11 AI and the loss of voice 49:09 Institutional AI typology 51:51 Teacher education directions 57:05 AI detectors and in-class writing 01:07:30 Tech hype vs pedagogy 01:11:53 Reading AI research critically
