Generative AI in EAP - where are we now?

Following on from 2024 episode on Machine Translation and GenAI, we explore a critical question: is generative AI really inevitable in education—or have we simply accepted a narrative? Our panel challenges the assumption that AI's dominance in higher education is a foregone conclusion. Rather than asking "how do we use AI?", they ask more fundamental questions: What does it mean for AI to be designed without commitment to truth? How do we preserve the productive difficulty that enables learning? And who sets the agenda—educators or edtech companies? They discuss the politics of academic writing, the importance of friction in learning, institutional massification, and what it means to centre values (rather than tools) in teaching and assessment. Hosts: Xiaoqing Bi, Xian-Jiaotong Liverpool University, China Paul Breen, University College London, UK Laura Richards, University of Leeds, UK Guests: Ayanna Prevatt-Goldstein, University College London, UK Mike Groves, Lingnan University, HK Klaus Mundt, University of Nottingham, UK Julia Molinari, The Open University, UK References: Beetham, H. (2026) 'Student writing as "passing" in a time of synthetic text', in Prevatt-Goldstein, A. and Mallows, D. (eds.) Critical perspectives on academic writing: The politics and practices of writing development in UK higher education. London: UCL Press, pp. 122–145. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550746 Groves, M. and Mundt, K. (2026) 'Progressive academic writing literacies: the constructive use of machine translation and generative AI as graduate competences', in Prevatt-Goldstein, A. and Mallows, D. (eds.) Critical perspectives on academic writing: The politics and practices of writing development in UK higher education. London: UCL Press, pp. 90–120. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550746 Molinari, J. (2026) 'Academic writing as political', in Prevatt-Goldstein, A. and Mallows, D. (eds.) Critical perspectives on academic writing: The politics and practices of writing development in UK higher education. London: UCL Press, pp. 25–51. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550746 Prevatt-Goldstein, A. and Mallows, D. (eds.) (2026) Critical perspectives on academic writing: The politics and practices of writing development in UK higher education. London: UCL Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550746 Turner, J. (2018) On writtenness: The cultural politics of academic writing. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474219051 BALEAP YouTube Channel