BEYOND THE “SAGE ON THE STAGE”: GENERATIVE AI AND THE CHALLENGING ROLES IN ESP TEACHING

Abstract

The massive spread of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Gen AI) into language classrooms has reopened a currently relevant question related with the human teacher’s role, and in some quarters revived the worry that the instructor who once stood as the “Sage on the Stage” has become obviously less important. This narrative literature review asks what actually happens to the roles and professional identities of language teachers as Gen AI has massively intervened their work, with particular attention to English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Following a protocol-guided search of academic databases, thirteen peer-reviewed studies published between 2022 and 2026 were synthesized, read alongside a smaller body of abundant literature on general language teaching. Taken together, the studies point away from displacement and toward reinvention. Teachers, ESP practitioners in particular, are taking on the work of prompt design, drawing on what one study terms AI-pedagogical knowledge to translate tacit expertise into instructions a model can follow. Since Gen AI can produce credible but incorrect content in specific fields such as engineering, medicine, law, etc., ESP teachers also find themselves play roles as domain validators and as guides to critical AI literacy. What emerges is less an authoritative source of knowledge than a facilitator who decides when to lean on automation and when to rely on judgment, context, and rapport that a model cannot supply.