Dialogic encounters in the third space: Generative AI, hybridity, and English language teaching for adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds

Abstract

This article examines the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in English language teaching for adults from migrant and refugee backgrounds through the theoretical lenses of Bakhtin’s dialogism and Bhabha’s notion of third space and hybridity. As generative AI platforms become increasingly embedded in educational contexts, there is an urgent need to move beyond instrumental conceptions of AI as a neutral tool and to interrogate the cultural, linguistic and ideological dimensions of human–AI interaction in language learning. Drawing on Bakhtin’s understanding of language as inherently dialogic and socially situated, and Bhabha’s theorisation of hybrid cultural spaces where new meanings are negotiated, this article argues that generative AI can function as a dialogic interlocutor within a productive third space, but only when deployed with critical pedagogical intent. The article reviews existing literature on AI in adult English language education, including recent empirical research on educator, learner, and leader attitudes toward generative AI in this sector, and establishes a theoretical framework grounded in dialogism and hybridity. It analyses the affordances, limitations, and dangers of generative AI in this context, with particular attention to diminished criticality, the erasure of embodied learning and creativity, and cultural homogenisation. The article concludes by proposing pedagogical approaches that foster critical AI literacy and preserve the multiplicity of human–AI collaborative possibilities.