ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AS A TOOL FOR DEVELOPING COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS (Evidence from EFL Settings in the Republic of Uzbekistan)
Аннотация
The development of communicative competence (CC) — the multidimensional ability to use language accurately, appropriately, and effectively in real-world interaction — stands at the center of contemporary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pedagogy. This article examines the capacity of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to serve as instruments for cultivating the five canonical components of CC: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, strategic, and intercultural competence. Drawing on a synthesis of current second language acquisition (SLA) research and empirical data from a 20-week quasi-experiment conducted in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (N = 156), the study evaluates the pedagogical effectiveness of four AI platforms — ELSA Speak, Duolingo, ChatGPT/GPT-4, and Grammarly — when deployed under conditions of structured teacher mediation. Results indicate significant gains across all five CC components in the experimental group, with the largest composite effect size recorded for strategic and sociolinguistic competence (Cohen's d = 0.76 and 0.72, respectively). The study concludes that AI tools constitute a pedagogically valuable, though pedagogically dependent, resource for CC development in Uzbek EFL contexts, and outlines five directions for future research.
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