The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology and the resulting array of ever-powerful consumer-facing generative AI (GenAI) applications have simultaneously wowed, stunned, scared and energized language teachers and researchers over the past few years. Understandably so, since these new technologies challenge foundational assumptions in our field: When writing can be largely automated, beautiful multimodal content generated from a few prompts, and when we can appear in videos speaking fluently in a language that we do not know, what becomes of the role of language teachers/teaching? This article engages these questions by critically examining four core areas of second language (L2) education: the language curriculum, the relationship between technology and language learning, the language learner and the ideological nature of teaching practice. Within each area, key tensions are identified between longstanding concepts in our field and the dynamic and highly situated literacies required for meaningful interaction in AI-mediated communicative environments. Specifically, I argue that the continued dominance of the four-skills curriculum should give way to curricula that prioritize contextual awareness; that technology must be understood not merely as a tool but as a communicative context in itself; that educational systems should de-center the individual learner as the sole source of intelligence; and that language teaching must confront the ideological dimensions embedded in both AI technologies as well as our responses to them. Ultimately, the article advocates digital literacy not as a supplemental concern but as vital framework for reconceptualizing language teaching and learning in the age of AI.
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