AI-Assisted International Exchanges: Rethinking the Future of Intercultural Language Education

Language education is undergoing significant changes as digital technologies expand the possibilities for intercultural collaboration and communication beyond physical mobility. Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL) practices such as Virtual Exchange (VE)/ Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) offer students meaningful opportunities to participate in global classrooms, engage with diverse peers, and develop intercultural competences. Within these contexts, Internationalization at Home (IaH) and Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC) have become central in redefining how institutions provide access to internationalized learning experiences. At the same time, the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) adds a new dimension, enabling personalized pathways, adaptive scaffolding, and greater learner autonomy. Yet, it also raises urgent pedagogical, ethical, and cultural questions. This Research Topic explores how AI reshapes intercultural internationalized language education and envisions future directions for design, agency, equity, and innovation in intercultural futures of language learning.

A major challenge in advancing the internationalization of education lies in the limited accessibility of physical mobility programs, which remain out of reach for most learners despite strong institutional support. This gap has drawn attention to alternative approaches that embed international and intercultural dimensions within formal and informal learning, allowing students to participate in meaningful exchanges without leaving their home contexts. IaH and IoC, together with digitally mediated practices such as VE/COIL, have emerged as significant responses, offering opportunities to foster intercultural competences, collaboration, and global awareness. While these approaches have demonstrated clear benefits, they also reveal complex challenges.

In this context, the rapid rise of AI opens new possibilities for rethinking how international experiences are designed and implemented. AI has the potential to support more inclusive and scalable forms of internationalization by personalizing learning, enhancing communication, and creating innovative pathways for intercultural collaboration. This Research Topic aims to explore how AI can contribute to the future of internationalized language education and intercultural exchange, ensuring that global learning opportunities become accessible to all.
This Research Topic seeks to explore how AI can mediate and transform intercultural language education through internationalized learning experiences, along with research that envisions AI contributing to more inclusive, equitable, and innovative pluricultural futures. We welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:

• The intersections between AI, intercultural futures, and language education
• The role of learner and teacher agency in shaping internationalized curricula through AI and digital tools
• AI pedagogical approaches fostering intercultural language education
• Integration of AI in IaH practices for language education
• Case studies on innovative institutional practices integrating AI, VE/COIL into curricula
• Challenges and outcomes of AI-mediated VE/COIL projects within internationalized and intercultural curricula
• Impact of AI on future directions of language policy and practice within internationalized curricula

This Research Topic invites submissions in the form of Original Research Articles, Review Articles, Perspective Articles, and Case Studies. Submissions should be methodologically rigorous, interdisciplinary in approach, and clearly articulate their contribution to advancing knowledge in International Exchanges, Technology Enhanced Language Learning, Artificial Intelligence and Intercultural Language Education.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Conceptual Analysis
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Registered Report
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Internationalization at Home (IaH), Internationalization of the Curriculum (IoC), Virtual Exchange (VE), Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Intercultural Language

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.