AI Tools and EFL Identity: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Gender and Cultural Representation in AI-Generated Reading Materials for Gulf University Students

Abstract

The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI) tools into English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom has revolutionized the production of teaching content. However, the ideological implications of AI-generated content have been markedly under-researched in non-Western contexts. This study employs Fairclough’s three-dimensional framework of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) on a corpus of 45 AI-generated EFL reading texts produced by the ChatGPT-4o, Google Gemini 1.5 Pro, and Microsoft Copilot in response to five standardized instructional prompts. It aims to investigate how gender and Arab cultural identity is discursively constructed in materials targeting Gulf university EFL learners. Analysis of the findings show that the female professional is consistently represented through discourse of relational and communal achievement while the single male professional is coded through individual enterprise and resilience. Leadership discourse universalizes the individual while entirely erasing gender and cultural identity across the nine texts. Furthermore, a Western nuclear family development narrative renders the Arab family invisible. Finally, Microsoft Copilot shows the lowest cultural specificity and the highest degree of textual cloning across platforms. The findings further affirm that L2 writing created by these AI models replicates Western liberal ideological formations, thus marginalizing the cultural and gender identities of the Arab learners. The research makes pedagogical, technological, and policy recommendations for the culturally responsive use of AI tools in higher education in the Gulf.