Revealing the Potential of ChatGPT for English Language Teaching: EFL Preservice Teachers’ Teaching Practicum Experience

The potential of ChatGPT as a novel Artificial Intelligence (henceforth, AI)-powered language model for language instruction, particularly for preservice teachers (henceforth, PSTs), remains unclear since earlier studies mainly provided theoretical concepts that have not yet been empirically verified. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to unleash the potential of ChatGPT for English language teaching and professional development. This qualitative study employed a phenomenological approach. The participants in this study were eight preservice English as a foreign language (henceforth, EFL) teachers at an Indonesian public university who were completing teaching practicums. Combining online and offline meetings, this study used in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Inductive thematic analysis was employed to analyze the data, and the results show that the PSTs used ChatGPT for four main purposes (innovative teaching content creation and presentation, collaborative instructional strategies, development of effective assessments, and language proficiency improvement) to improve their teaching techniques during the teaching practicums. The results also suggest that ChatGPT could provide comprehensive and relevant information. Still, at some


INTRODUCTION
ChatGPT, a sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (henceforth, AI)-powered language model, has attracted considerable attention in a remarkably brief period of time since its launch (Hong, 2023).This AI system can translate a user's native language into a desired target language, generate written content in the target language, and engage in interactive conversations with users (Cotton et al., 2023).As a result, these remarkable characteristics of ChatGPT have the potential to cause significant disruptions in numerous fields, including English language teaching (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Farrokhnia et al., 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023).
Some scholars claim that ChatGPT has the potential to substantially improve language teaching in all language skills, including listening, speaking, reading, and writing (e.g., Fitria, 2023;Hong, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023).For example, ChatGPT is intelligent enough to respond to follow-up questions (Fitria, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023).Therefore, ChatGPT's capabilities make it a valuable companion for English teachers, assisting them in developing instructional materials and assessment tasks (Koraishi, 2023).ChatGPT could also be exceptionally advantageous for EFL PSTs, who are novices and lack teaching experience.
As aspiring educators, PSTs play a crucial role in influencing the future of language teaching.Research has indicated that some of the current EFL PSTs know how to use technology in teaching (Kusuma, 2022c;Park & Son, 2020).Even though they lack teaching knowledge and experience, previous studies reported that EFL PSTs successfully conducted teaching using technology during their teaching practicums (Baz et al., 2019;Fathi & Ebadi, 2020;Kusuma, 2022aKusuma, , 2022b;;Park & Son, 2020).Therefore, understanding their viewpoints and firsthand knowledge regarding using ChatGPT in teaching practicums is crucial for making informed decisions, developing curriculum, and enhancing teacher professional development.
Recent research (e.g., Fitria, 2023;Hong, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023) has revealed voids in the limited information on how EFL teachers employ ChatGPT to improve English instruction and their perceptions towards ChatGPT to improve teacher professional development, particularly the preservice ones during teaching practicums.In addition, previous research on ChatGPT has only provided theoretical underpinnings with scarce empirical evidence.According to researchers, empirical research is required to determine the potential of ChatGPT for English instruction (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Hong, 2023), including the benefits and drawbacks.Moreover, teachers who are aware of the benefits and drawbacks of AI would seem to successfully integrate AI into the curriculum (Lin et al., 2022).In light of the aforementioned voids, the purpose of this study was to unleash the potential of ChatGPT for English language teaching and professional development.The following overarching questions were formulated to guide the inquiry: 1.According to EFL PSTs' experience, what is the potential of ChatGPT for teaching purposes?2. According to EFL PSTs' perceptions, what are the benefits and drawbacks of using ChatGPT for designing English language teaching materials?3. How do EFL PSTs perceive ChatGPT in relation to professional development?

Artificial Intelligence in Language Learning
Artificial Intelligence is the newest technology in this modern era (Huang et al., 2023), even though this term first appeared in 1956 (Abramowitz & Antonenko, 2022).AI depicts computer programs or systems that have intelligence (Kim & Kim, 2022).AI encompasses four distinct processes: data perception, data analysis, data utilization, and intelligence enhancement through data (Abramowitz & Antonenko, 2022).
Language teaching has been revolutionized by the rise of artificial intelligence (see Gonulal, 2021;Huang et al., 2023;Liang et al., 2021;Tai & Chen, 2022;Tsai, 2019;Waer, 2021).For example, Google Translate can be used by students to help them translate from their native language to the target language (Tsai, 2019).Other Google AI products could be used to help students improve their public speaking skills through practicing with Google Home Hub and Home Mini (Tai & Chen, 2022).These are only a few of how AI has already begun to alter the way languages are taught and learned significantly.
Furthermore, there has been an increase in the availability of AI and machinelearning-friendly course materials, tools, and extracurricular activities in classrooms (Sanusi et al., 2022).Perhaps it is influenced by the affordances that AI brings to education.Some of those advantages of AI include the availability of providing more data for study (Abramowitz & Antonenko, 2022), generating humorous responses (Gonulal, 2021), offering writing assistance, writing evaluation, writing tutoring (Huang et al., 2023), translating from one language to the target one (Tsai, 2019), and human-computer interaction (Tai & Chen, 2022).Therefore, with its affordances, AI is employed to help students with their reading, writing, vocabulary, grammar, and listening comprehension in many classrooms (Huang et al., 2023).

ChatGPT in Language Learning
As a newly developed AI, ChatGPT is a natural language processing system built by OpenAI (Kalla & Smith, 2023;Lo, 2023) that can simulate human conversation.Since then, it has garnered much attention from academics (Hong, 2023).Unlike conventional rule-based chatbots, ChatGPT uses cutting-edge AI methods, such as natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning (Kalla & Smith, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023;Lo, 2023).ChatGPT uses GPT-3, one of the largest and most powerful language models available (Cotton et al., 2023;Fitria, 2023), to ChatGPT can intelligently carry out a wide range of activities (Nghi & Phuc, 2023) because it has been trained on a vast corpus of text data, allowing it to recognize patterns and associations between words, phrases, and sentences.Furthermore, ChatGPT becomes more effective as it learns from its users' past experiences with the program (Farrokhnia et al., 2023).ChatGPT is set apart by this advancement in AI technology, which enables it to respond to users' instructions outside of preprogrammed rules (Kohnke et al., 2023) and hence provide more personalized service.Many believe that AI can bring benefits to education (Abramowitz & Antonenko, 2022;Huang et al., 2023;Yang et al., 2022), and several scholars claim that ChatGPT can bring similar benefits to education, particularly language instruction, although their claims are theoretical and require empirical support.ChatGPT is intelligent enough to respond to follow-up questions (Fitria, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023), enabling personalized and complex learning (Cotton et al., 2023;Farrokhnia et al., 2023;Hong, 2023).Moreover, similar to other generative AI, ChatGPT can generate texts (Fitria, 2023) and written expressions (Hong, 2023), do translations (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Cotton et al., 2023), and do grammar checks (Fitria, 2023).Interestingly, ChatGPT can also be a digital dictionary that provides example sentences and additional definitions (Kohnke et al., 2023).ChatGPT can reduce teacher effort (Farrokhnia et al., 2023) because it allows for easy access to information and can be used to create instructional materials and assist teachers with scoring assignments (Koraishi, 2023).
Many scholars have theoretically proposed different claims based on the information generated by ChatGPT.For instance, ChatGPT is claimed to create contextually appropriate responses (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Lo, 2023).ChatGPT can also provide authentic language materials, including definitions, explanations, and examples (Hong, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023), offering comprehensive information to language learners.In addition, ChatGPT has the potential to provide critical and highorder thinking information in a systematic order (Lo, 2023).On the other hand, ChatGPT has the potential to generate biased information (Farrokhnia et al., 2023;Kalla & Smith, 2023) because it uses an extensive database that has not been confirmed for validity (Sallam, 2023).Moreover, it has a downside to producing more abstract concepts (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023) and generic information (Farrokhnia et al., 2023).ChatGPT also cannot provide original information as it does not provide any sources or citations (Kohnke et al., 2023) and often generates fake information (Lo, 2023).

EFL Preservice Teachers and Teaching Practicums
According to several studies, preservice teachers depict the students studying in teacher education institutions (see Drajati et al., 2021;Kusuma, 2022a;Nugroho, 2017).PSTs, as future teachers, benefit from opportunities to hone their expertise through actual classroom instruction.PSTs can hone their skills in a real-world classroom by conducting teaching practicums (Altalhab et al., 2021).To become proficient teachers, EFL preservice teachers need to possess a comprehensive understanding of teaching contents and approaches.They must also get practical experience in the area through teaching practicum or practice teaching (Kusuma, 2022a).The teaching practicum serves as a means for acquiring teaching skills, providing preservice teachers an opportunity to enhance their personal and professional identities using the knowledge gained from the Teacher Education Program (Altalhab et al., 2021;Safari, 2020).Moreover, PSTs would implement what they learned from the teacher education program (Batane & Ngwako, 2017) during the teaching practicums, allowing them to develop their professionalism (Safari, 2020).Therefore, student teaching is essential for aspiring educators (Opfer & Pedder, 2011).
Even though EFL PSTs might lack teaching skills and experience, research indicates they know how to use technology for teaching purposes.For example, Park and Son (2020) reported that six EFL PSTs in Hong Kong employed several types of software and web resources.Using different platforms, Fathi and Ebadi (2020) reported that EFL PSTs in Iran employed presentation devices, online documents, interaction devices, and Edu-cloud.Interestingly, other studies also reported that EFL PSTs disrupted social media for English instruction purposes (Akayoglu et al., 2020;Baz et al., 2018).However, a few studies reported that EFL PSTs did not use technology due to concerns like not being familiar with the technology used by the schools (Merç, 2015) and the unsuitability of students' situations with the selected platforms (Baz et al., 2019), suggesting that they can analyze teaching situations before integrating technology.Similar findings were discovered by Kusuma (2022b), who found that EFL PSTs in Indonesia could analyze teaching scenarios in preparation for adopting flipped classrooms that required Web 2.0 technology integration.
The aforementioned implementations might be influenced by the fact that most of these individuals know how to use technology (Kusuma, 2022c;Park & Son, 2020).It is also possible that during their time in teacher education programs, PSTs acquire Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Yüksel & Kavanoz, 2011), which equips them to use technology in their lessons (Koehler & Mishra, 2005;Mishra & Koehler, 2006;Schmidt et al., 2009).That said, they are more likely to successfully integrate technology into language instruction if they have a solid foundation of technological pedagogical content understanding (Durak, 2019;Habibi & Yazdani, 2016;Incik & Akay, 2017).EFL PSTs are more receptive to using technology in their lessons than their in-service counterparts, who are often unprepared to use it in the classroom (Drajati et al., 2018), which can lead to uncomfortable situations in the classroom (Djiwandono, 2019).

Design and Context
This study employed interpretive phenomenology analysis and a phenomenology approach to describe, comprehend, and interpret the participants' experiences (Tuohy et al., 2013).This research was conducted at an Indonesian state university because it has an English language education department.When the researchers conducted the study, the first batch of EFL PSTs was about to begin their teaching practicums.Regarding the context, this study explored the participants' experiences of employing ChatGPT during their teaching practicums.

Participants
Before conducting the study, the researchers requested approval from the Institutional Review Board.Once approval was obtained, the researchers contacted the research site and explained the study to the head of the department and the potential participants.The EFL PSTs in this university were taught using the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework, where they learned content and pedagogy courses and technology and technology education courses.Moreover, the teacher educators taught using technology to give examples and teaching ideas to them.Among 20 PSTs invited using the convenience sampling technique, only 10 responded and were willing to attend the online ChatGPT meeting conducted via Zoom.The meeting discussed ChatGPT and its functions but did not discuss the potential associated with English instruction.All potential participants were informed of the research and the risks and benefits of participation.However, only seven PSTs (4 females and 3 males) with very limited teaching experience eventually agreed to participate in this study after attending the seminar.These six PSTs completed their teaching practicum for two months and decided to use ChatGPT for teaching purposes during their teaching practicums.In this study, the participants' names are identified and reported only in initials to maintain confidentiality and adhere to research ethics principles.Table 1 provides an overview of the participants' demographic information.

Data Collection and Instrument
The researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews guided by an interview protocol.The interview protocol consisted of fourteen questions, three seeking information about the participants' demographics and the remaining six about their teaching practicum experiences.Five questions were about the benefits and drawbacks of using ChatGPT for designing teaching materials.The protocol was sent for feedback to an expert in educational technology.Following the feedback, the researchers made just a few changes to the questions to make them more understandable to the participants.The interviews were conducted online or offline, with the researcher scheduling individual interviews with each participant.In three sessions, the researchers interviewed each participant individually for 30 -40 minutes in two months.The interviews were conducted in Indonesian to reduce anxiety and increase the likelihood of obtaining more detailed information.The researchers also took notes to record potential data analysis information.The researchers also collected screenshots of participants' interactions with ChatGPT during their teaching practicums.

Data Analysis
The researchers transcribed the interviews for analysis purposes.To ensure the credibility and trustworthiness of the research, the researchers read and reread the transcribes.The interview results were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis to generate relevant themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006).The researchers also employed the bracketing method (Tufford & Newman, 2012) to analyze the data objectively and without preconceived notions.Two researchers read all data while taking notes to record potential codes, themes, and subthemes during data analysis.These researchers then assigned codes to potential themes and sub-themes and discussed the results.All researchers discussed codes, themes, and subthemes with few divergent viewpoints.For example, the researchers renamed all original themes as nouns for uniformity.Finally, the researchers generated nine themes, 18 sub-themes, and 128 relevant excerpts to describe the potential of ChatGPT to support EFL teachers' instruction during teaching practicums.

EFL Preservice Teachers' ChatGPT Activities and Sub-Activities
According to the interviews, the participants employed ChatGPT frequently for six main activities, as summarized in Table 2.

Texts creation
The results of the interviews show that five participants regularly used ChatGPT to generate texts.The interview data also reveal that participants employed ChatGPT to generate report texts (SR), short messages (ST), descriptive texts, narrative texts (OA), procedure texts (JN and LG), and analytical exposition texts (GR) as examples for the students when teaching reading and writing skills.Participants also requested ChatGPT to generate texts/dialogues to teach speaking skills, such as making offers (OA), providing caution and warning (JN), sending brief messages (ST), and introducing food (LG).

Resource development for presentation/explanation
Six participants used ChatGPT to get information and clarification on various topics, as revealed by the results of the interviews.That data and explanation were then used to inform lessons taught to students.For example, SR mentioned, (1) I searched there [ChatGPT] regarding the definition of language functions, structures, and characteristics [of text report genre] and also examples of the text reports.
Similarly, JN described, (2) I used ChatGPT when looking for materials related to text procedures starting from the type of structure.Then it also gave me the language features of the text itself.

Consultation on teaching strategies/activities
Interestingly, the interviews reveal that five participants regularly consulted ChatGPT for advice on implementing various teaching strategies and activities.As novice teachers, they claimed to have limited knowledge and teaching experience, similar to what ST described, (3) ...like yesterday there were materials that I didn't understand and was worried because I didn't know where to confirm.I meant I had to ask for help regarding these teaching materials.
Fortunately, ST asked ChatGPT about interesting teaching activities, and ChatGPT complied with her request.

Creating questions
The results of the interviews indicate that five participants used ChatGPT to create questions.When distributing texts to students, they occasionally requested that ChatGPT generate multiple-choice questions or true-false statements along with the answers.For example, OA used ChatGPT to generate texts, including the questions he mentioned, (4) …for reading, I asked [ChatGPT] to create texts and questions based on the text.
Very few of them would also request that ChatGPT develop an assessment requiring longer responses.On a separate occasion, GR requested that ChatGPT generate questions not for accompanying the texts but for something else, as she explained, (5) I used ChatGPT to create multiple-choice questions about analytical exposition texts.It all came up from there, and I used it for the grade 10 daily test.

Creating a scoring rubric
During the interviews, few participants claimed to have used ChatGPT to create scoring rubrics.Three of them knew this potential and attempted to develop scoring rubrics.For instance, ST accidentally discovered that ChatGPT could generate scoring rubrics, which she reported, (6) ... when compiling a lesson plan, I had to make a scoring rubric, but I had not prepared it yet.When I tried to inquire on ChatGPT, it created the rubric for me.I immediately copied it and made a [scoring rubric] table.
In the same vein, OA also used ChatGPT to create scoring rubrics, as he said, (7) At that time, I wanted to teach about invitation cards, so I asked ChatGPT to make a scoring rubric for invitation cards.PA also discovered this potential, but it was too late; the teaching practicums had already finished, and he could only use it for the lesson plans he was required to submit as part of his teaching practicum report.

Paraphrasing and grammar checks
In addition to scoring rubric development, some participants recognized ChatGPT's potential for paraphrasing and grammar checking.Only two individuals often used it for this purpose.As OA explained, he used it to give a native tone in his instructional materials.He said, So that I could also get the tone of a native speaker and check the grammar.
ST also experienced it similarly, saying, (9) I was going to give a presentation, and then I asked ChatGPT for help in checking my grammar because my grammar was also lacking.Then I used ChatGPT, and finally, I was able to correct my grammar [mistakes].

The benefits and drawbacks of ChatGPT for designing teaching materials
The interview results of eight EFL PSTs suggest two themes and five sub-themes as the benefits of using ChatGPT for English language teaching during teaching practicums, especially for material creation, as summarized in Table 3.

Comprehensive and well-suited teaching information
The excerpts from seven participants demonstrate how ChatGPT provides contextualized teaching information in response to user requests.Several participants frequently mentioned that ChatGPT can generate context-appropriate and relevant materials in response to their requests.In addition, ChatGPT could create questions similar to those requested by participants.For example, SR mentioned, (10) When, for example, I searched for report text questions there, it [ChatGPT] provided the questions about report text.They were clearer and easier and also more relevant than other resources.
The findings from the interviews reveal a consensus among five participants regarding providing holistic teaching information by ChatGPT.These five participants consistently agreed that ChatGPT offered comprehensive teaching materials and the necessary information for their needs as EFL PSTs.The participants also underlined that ChatGPT met their needs by delivering the required teaching materials and information.In addition to their positive experiences with ChatGPT, the participants described their prior use of Google as an information source for teaching.Before interacting with ChatGPT, the participants had frequently depended on Google for teaching materials and information searches.Nonetheless, after utilizing ChatGPT, ST, JN, and OA expressed curiosity and seized the opportunity to compare the results generated by ChatGPT and those obtained from Google.They found that ChatGPT provided more comprehensive results.
The interview data from the provided excerpts reveals an ongoing theme of obtaining structured teaching information via ChatGPT that is aligned with their specific requests.The participants, particularly SR, ST, and GR, consistently recognized ChatGPT's capability to deliver structured information.The inclusion of characteristics and examples alongside the primary information demonstrates ChatGPT's dedication to providing thorough and contextualized teaching resources.By presenting information in a structured format, ChatGPT helped them gain a deeper understanding of the subject matter and improved their ability to implement it effectively in their teaching contexts.
The interview results of eight EFL PSTs also found two themes and four subthemes as the drawbacks of using ChatGPT regarding the information generated, as summarized in Table 4.

Low information relevance and accuracy
The interview results reveal that participants such as OA, LG, and PA identified ChatGPT's limitations despite the program's benefits in generating teaching materials and information.This limitation predominantly relates to ChatGPT occasionally providing general or insufficiently specific information.While acknowledging the I. P. I. Kusuma, M. Roni, K. S. Dewi & G. Mahendrayana Furthermore, the experiences of five participants on some occasions illustrate instances in which ChatGPT provided irrelevant or discordant information, indicating its inability to generate precise and context-appropriate content consistently.SR and LG, for example, emphasized that ChatGPT may not provide the desired information if the search input is not specific.This indicates that ChatGPT relies on precise queries to return relevant results.The results may not correspond to the participants' intended request if the search query is insufficiently specific.In addition, the rest expressed their dissatisfaction with ChatGPT's results.GR provided an instance in which ChatGPT generated figurative language distinct from textbooks and worksheets the students used.This discrepancy suggests that ChatGPT does not consistently align with specific teaching materials or curricula, which could contribute to inconsistencies and confusion in the classroom.

Lack of information precision
The participants' interviews, particularly OA, PA, and GR, indicate certain limitations in using ChatGPT, including the potential for general or mismatched information and the difficulty of generating specific question formats.OA emphasized further that the content generated by ChatGPT may be too broad or misaligned with user expectations.This necessitates multiple instructions and requests iterations to obtain the desired response.Additionally, the participants reported instances in which ChatGPT provided content or responses that were inappropriate or irrelevant to the initial request.OA's experience best illustrates this situation: (12) I asked for teaching material A and was then given material B, or in the sense that I asked for one thing but was given another.This may be because the instructions that I gave were in one chat.For example, I can ask about two materials in one chat.When I asked about one material, I was given another material that was not appropriate.(OA, Personal interview, Second session, 2023) In addition, SR, OA, and PA claimed that ChatGPT often provided excessive information that was not needed.Their excerpts reveal instances where ChatGPT provided excessive or overly broad information, resulting in difficulties conveying the intended meaning or achieving desirable outcomes.The participants often mentioned that even though ChatGPT conveyed information in accordance with the request, it also provided additional information beyond what was desired.For example, PA claimed, (13) However, for the results, the ChatGPT results are lacking, in my opinion, because they are not very good.Not to mention, the information provided is too broad and excessive.

EFL Preservice Teachers' Perceptions of ChatGPT in Relation to Professional Development
Regarding EFL PSTs' perceptions of ChatGPT about professional development, the researchers found two themes and five sub-themes, as presented in Table 4.

ChatGPT enhances material development
Despite the participants' drawbacks, the interview results show that five participants regularly asserted that ChatGPT helped them enhance their teaching material development skills.In the case of GR, for instance, ChatGPT was crucial in facilitating access to more organized pedagogical resources, such as materials and examples.The following excerpt shows how PA valued the assistance he received from ChatGPT.
I. P. I. Kusuma, M. Roni, K. S. Dewi & G. Mahendrayana, Revealing the potential of ChatGPT for English language teaching: EFL preservice teachers' teaching practicum experience | 663 The interview data showed that three participants thought ChatGPT could help with their assessment designs.ChatGPT had allowed PSTs like OA, GR, and ST to create student assessments like multiple-choice quizzes, true/false tests, and scoring rubrics.In addition, ST shared her personal experience of how she was initially not satisfied with the questions created by ChatGPT but later came to appreciate them: (15) I asked to generate questions, and they were easy, but the questions still fool many students.So, it was like they [the students] were confused.For the 8th grade questions, I think they [the questions] were simple, but when they [the students] tried to answer them, they had to read them over and over again.So, I like this kind of question model.(ST, Personal Interview, Third session, 2023)

ChatGPT fosters innovative instructional approaches
According to the results of the interviews, three of the participants believed that ChatGPT could help them develop teaching ideas because they used them frequently.For instance, ST repeatedly mentioned how ChatGPT had inspired and assisted her as a PST.Similarly, LG noted that ChatGPT was essential in helping him become a better teacher, as he said, (16) Before, I was indifferent and skeptical about what ChatGPT was.But when I started using it, I found it quite helpful in giving some ideas about my English teaching.
Four participants were more prepared to teach after using ChatGPT because it helped them comprehend the concepts and materials they would be covering.OA also said ChatGPT was useful since it helped him as a novice teacher.He said, (17) I think ChatGPT has a good future in helping prospective teachers teach English.Most PSTs still lack understanding when they go into the field.Therefore, ChatGPT is actually very capable of providing this assistance.
In addition, four other participants asserted that ChatGPT assisted them in enhancing their teaching practices.For example, ST and JN found that using the teaching models and exercises provided by ChatGPT helped them better teach their students in English.For this reason, JN stated, (18) For me, ChatGPT is very suitable and helpful for PSTs.For example, I am still a student teacher, and it is very helpful to use ChatGPT [to teach].Moreover, [for] someone who wants to become a professional English teacher [, ChatGPT] will be very helpful.(JN, Personal interview via Zoom, Third session, 2023).

DISCUSSION
To answer the first research question about the potential of using ChatGPT to support EFL PSTs' teaching practicums, this study found that EFL PSTs employed ChatGPT for resource development for presentation/explanation, consultation on teaching strategies/activities, creating questions, creating scoring rubrics, and paraphrasing and grammar checks.These findings not only confirm but also expand upon prior literature on ChatGPT's potential for language classrooms (e.g., Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Cotton et al., 2023;Fitria, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023).Even though those earlier studies only proposed theoretical concepts of what ChatGPT is capable of, this study has provided empirical evidence that these ideas help support language instruction, particularly for EFL PSTs who lack teaching knowledge and experience.While these results are encouraging, they do not shed light on how the rest of ChatGPT's potential for language instruction can be exploited, including its use for translating and designing personalized and complex learning purposes, as suggested by some scholars (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Cotton et al., 2023;Farrokhnia et al., 2023;Hong, 2023).Moreover, as indicated in the interviews, only some participants used ChatGPT to create scoring rubrics, paraphrasing, and checking grammar.ChatGPT's outputs probably met their expectations as ChatGPT uses GPT-3, one of the largest and most potent language models (Cotton et al., 2023;Fitria, 2023).Consequently, many participants used ChatGPT for paraphrasing and grammar checks.
Intriguingly, almost all participants consulted ChatGPT for effective teaching methods and activities.Therefore, the results of our study supplemented the previous evidence reported by Kusuma (2023) that PSTs appreciate solving problems independently by searching Google or watching YouTube videos.As a result, rather than going to their teacher educators or school supervisors, PSTs may initially turn to ChatGPT for advice when they need to find a solution to a problem.
In order to answer the second research question regarding the benefits of using ChatGPT, the interview results indicate that ChatGPT provided comprehensive and well-suited teaching information, corroborating the theoretical claims made by previous researchers (Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Hong, 2023;Kohnke et al., 2023;Lo, 2023).In addition, the findings of this study have provided empirical evidence that ChatGPT could provide in-context teaching information, holistic teaching information, and structured teaching information, as perceived by EFL PSTs in this study.The researchers attributed these advantages to the robust technology employed by ChatGPT, specifically GPT-3, which enables it to intelligently perform various tasks (Nghi & Phuc, 2023).In addition, ChatGPT's vast corpus enables it to provide comprehensive and well-suited teaching information, making it a valuable resource for designing teaching resources.
In contrast, when addressing the downsides of using ChatGPT for designing English language teaching materials, this study identified some deficiencies in the ChatGPT-generated content.Notably, some information lacked relevance, accuracy, and precision.Previous researchers (e.g., Baskara & Mukarto, 2023;Farrokhnia et al., 2023;Kalla & Smith, 2023), who have warned about the potential for ChatGPT to provide generic, discriminatory, and even false information, concur with these findings.Sallam (2023) attributed these disadvantages to ChatGPT's extensive database, underscoring the need for database verification to ensure the quality and accuracy of content generated for English language teaching materials.In addition, the significant concern for EFL PSTs in this study is the lack of information precision observed in ChatGPT's responses.Language teaching materials must be accurate and clear as they directly affect students' learning experiences.This explains why a few EFL PSTs in this study repeatedly stated that they did not use the information directly and needed to evaluate and modify the teaching materials.
From the findings and discussion, this study offers three implications for English language teaching and the professional development of preservice teachers.First, using ChatGPT as a resource development tool for various teaching aspects demonstrates its potential and versatility in supporting EFL PSTs' teaching I. P. I. Kusuma, M. Roni, K. S. Dewi & G. Mahendrayana, Revealing the potential of ChatGPT for English language teaching: EFL preservice teachers' teaching practicum experience | 665 practicums.Therefore, this study suggests that teacher education should consider incorporating ChatGPT into microteaching classes, helping teacher educators along with PSTs to explore its full range capability for language instruction and enhancing more innovative teaching, learning, and assessment activities.Second, PSTs must be aware of ChatGPT's downsides.When integrating ChatGPT into the design of teaching materials, it is suggested that EFL PSTs consider ChatGPT's drawbacks, including low information relevance and accuracy.Understanding these downsides enables them to make informed judgments regarding when and how to utilize ChatGPT effectively.Third, given the possibility of bias, lack of specificity, and lack of precision in ChatGPT's responses, it is suggested that EFL PSTs evaluate the generated content critically before incorporating it into their teaching materials.This includes crossreferencing with reputable sources and ensuring the information aligns with the student's learning objectives and requirements.

CONCLUSION
This study advances knowledge of ChatGPT's role in language teaching and its potential advantages for EFL PSTs.The results highlight how crucial it is to include technological tools like ChatGPT in teacher professional development programs to provide teachers with the abilities and information they need to succeed in the evolving field of language education.Furthermore, this study's findings indicate that ChatGPT can help develop English language teaching materials, as it provides comprehensive and relevant empirical data.Due to the identified limitations, including low information relevance and accuracy, as well as the possibility of bias, caution is necessary.
Nonetheless, this study has several limitations based on which future research should establish its focus.The potential of ChatGPT in various educational contexts can be further explored and expanded upon in future research, which can also investigate its long-term effects on teacher professional development and student learning outcomes.Moreover, as drawbacks related to teaching information quality, future research may focus on developing techniques to mitigate bias in AI language models and ensure that the generated content is inclusive and impartial.

( 8 )
I asked ChatGPT to paraphrase my writing, and it was even better [than what I could do myself].
I. P. I.Kusuma, M. Roni, K. S. Dewi & G. Mahendrayana, Revealing the potential of ChatGPT for English language teaching: EFL preservice teachers' teaching practicum experience | 653 demonstrate its capability to participate in intellectual communication through textual dialogues.

Table 3 .
The benefits of ChatGPT for designing teaching materials.

Table 4 .
The drawbacks of information generated by ChatGPT for teaching materials.
, Revealing the potential of ChatGPT for English language teaching: EFL preservice teachers' teaching practicum experience | 661 comprehensive nature of the information provided by ChatGPT, OA noted that the questions generated by ChatGPT were too general when requesting questions for teaching specific genres such as descriptive and narrative.This indicates that ChatGPT may have difficulty generating highly specific and tailored content, resulting in the production of more general content.In addition, PA and LG consistently mentioned that ChatGPT often provided general information.Particularly, LG described an instance in which they chose not to utilize the ChatGPT materials: (11) Maybe, in my opinion, I feel that it is not suitable [descriptive text from ChatGPT] to be implemented, and [I] feel inadequate if it is only used that way.I'll add a few [sentences] from me... in my opinion, it's just too general [the teaching materials] (LG, Personal interview via Zoom, Second session, 2023)

Table 4 .
EFL PSTs' perceptions of ChatGPT in relation to professional development.