Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course

Clarisse Halpern; Bruno Halpern; Hasan Aydin

Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society

Research Article

2025, 1(1), Article No: 4

Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course

Clarisse Halpern ¹ ^* , Bruno Halpern ¹, Hasan Aydin ¹

¹ Florida Gulf Coast University, UNITED STATES
^* Corresponding Author

Published in Volume 1 Issue 1: 26 Dec 2025

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Abstract

As K–12 classrooms enroll growing numbers of multilingual learners, teacher preparation programs must both meet ESOL endorsement expectations and support candidates in developing culturally and linguistically responsive practice. Pre-service teachers also benefit from structured opportunities to reflect on how their personal backgrounds and everyday information environments shape perceptions of multilingual learners, particularly as contemporary media systems increasingly rely on algorithmic curation and generative AI. In this exploratory instrumental case study, we examined how pre-service teachers in an upper-level ESOL Foundations course at a university in Southwest Florida made sense of media and AI influences on their views of teaching multilingual learners, and how they articulated possible classroom-facing instructional strategies informed by critical media and AI literacies. A total of 38 undergraduates volunteered to participate. We analyzed two coursework artifacts produced during a teacher-attitudes module (a reading reflection paper and written responses to a structured class discussion/activity) using qualitative content analysis informed by critical media literacy (CML). Findings highlighted three intertwined challenges: difficulty recognizing subtle media bias, uncertainty about evaluating AI-generated or AI-amplified misinformation, and limited confidence in articulating feasible instructional strategies that apply a critical lens in multilingual-learner instruction. At the same time, participants proposed lesson ideas and classroom norms intended to help students question media representations and identify deficit-oriented narratives about immigrant and multilingual communities. We argue that CML, including foundational AI literacy, should be treated as a cross-cutting professional competence in teacher education and meaningfully connected to coursework that prepares candidates to teach multilingual learners

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APA 7th edition

In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, C., Halpern, B., & Aydin, H. (2025). Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course. Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society, 1(1), Article 4.

AMA 10th edition

In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Halpern C, Halpern B, Aydin H. Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course. Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society. 2025;1(1), 4.

Chicago

In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, Clarisse, Bruno Halpern, and Hasan Aydin. "Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course". Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society 2025 1 no. 1 (2025): 4.

Harvard

In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, C., Halpern, B., and Aydin, H. (2025). Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course. Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society, 1(1), 4.

MLA

In-text citation: (Halpern et al., 2025)
Reference: Halpern, Clarisse et al. "Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course". Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society, vol. 1, no. 1, 2025, 4.

Vancouver

In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Halpern C, Halpern B, Aydin H. Seeing multilingual learners through media and AI: Pre-service teachers’ perceptions in an ESOL course. Journal of Interdisciplinary Research in Artificial Intelligence and Society. 2025;1(1):4.

Keywords

critical media literacy, AI literacy, teacher education, pre-service teachers, multilingual learners, misinformation, equity pedagogy

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