İngilizce öğretmenlerinin yapay zekayı sınıf değerlendirmesine entegre etmelerinin incelenmesi: Şanlıurfa ili örneği

Language teaching has many components, one of which is classroom assessment. As technology evolved around the years, language assessment evolved as well. With the development of artificial intelligence (AI), its integration into language assessment was inevitable. As teachers are the primary agents in assessment, examining their perceptions regarding the integration of AI tools in assessment is essential. This study examines the perceptions, experienced benefits, encountered challenges, and needs of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers regarding the integration of AI tools into classroom assessment. This study used a mixed method research design to capture both broad and in-depth data. The data was collected from 52 Turkish EFL teachers who answered a questionnaire with Likert-scale items, "select all that apply" questions, and open-ended questions. The emerging quantitative data was analysed descriptively using SPSS 30, whereas the qualitive data was analysed thematically. To enrich the findings, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 participants, which was also analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that the majority of teachers' use AI tools for assessment with varied frequencies, however none of them use it always. The main reasons for not using AI tools were uncovered to be limited knowledge and limited infrastructure. On the other hand, it was found that teachers mainly used it for providing feedback and generating questions. Moreover, benefits such as practicality, objectivity, and increased student engagement were frequently mentioned. However, challenges including no courses, high cost, and inadequate infrastructure were also identified. Participants mentioned needs of professional development courses and a developed infrastructure to facilitate wider adoption. Therefore, the study concludes that effective integration of AI tools depends on not only teachers, but on all stakeholders. Considering all, this study offers implications and recommendations for teachers, institutions, and policy developers regarding AI tools integration in language assessment.