Foreign Language and Literature Teachers, Postsecondary

Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can create syllabi, assignments, handouts, and adapt materials to learning objectives and levels quickly and consistently.

Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.

AI: Fully automatable - Maintaining attendance, gradebooks, and required records is already routinely automated by LMS/SIS tools and can be fully managed by AI-driven systems.

Develop and maintain Web pages for teaching-related purposes.

AI: Fully automatable - By 2025 AI tools can generate, deploy, and maintain teaching web pages end-to-end (content creation, layout, code, CMS integration and routine updates).

Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.

AI: Fully automatable - AI can reliably search databases, compile, format, and update specialized bibliographies quickly and accurately, making this task fully automatable.

Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.

AI: Partial - AI can automatically grade many assignment types and provide detailed feedback based on rubrics, but human oversight is still needed for nuanced assessments, academic integrity issues, and borderline cases.

Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.

AI: Partial - AI can generate prompts, moderate online discussions, and nudge participation but lacks full real-time pedagogical judgment and socio-emotional facilitation in live classrooms.

Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.

AI: Partial - AI can produce curricula drafts, analyze outcomes, and suggest revisions, but final design must account for institutional, accreditation, and disciplinary judgment by humans.

Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as how to speak and write a foreign language and the cultural aspects of areas where a particular language is used.

AI: Partial - AI can prepare lecture materials and even deliver prerecorded or TTS lectures and interactive modules, but it cannot fully replicate adaptive in-person teaching and nuanced disciplinary mentorship.

Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.

AI: Partial - AI can provide 24/7 routine advising and triage student questions, but lacks the deep mentorship, confidentiality judgment, and situational awareness of human office hours.

Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.

AI: Partial - AI can compile assessments, proctor exams, and automatically grade many item types (including some essays), but concerns about security, fairness, and nuanced evaluation require human oversight.

Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks.

AI: Partial - AI can recommend and automate procurement of textbooks and supplies, yet final selection often depends on instructor preferences, curricular fit, and institutional approvals.

Keep abreast of developments in their field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional organizations and activities.

AI: Partial - AI can continuously scan and summarize literature and surface relevant developments, but cannot fully replace human networking, conference participation, and active scholarly engagement.

Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.

AI: Partial - AI can offer personalized academic planning and labor-market information, but it cannot fully substitute for nuanced career mentorship, individualized judgment, and professional networking.

Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.

AI: Partial - AI can facilitate collaboration, generate ideas, and analyze research data, but interpersonal negotiation, shared governance, and collaborative leadership still require human involvement.

Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.

AI: Partial - AI can automate many administrative tasks of a department head (scheduling, reporting, data analysis) but cannot assume leadership, personnel decision-making, and institutional accountability required for the role.

Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.

AI: Partial - AI can automate many recruitment, registration, and placement processes (chatbots, form processing, scheduling, candidate filtering) but cannot fully replace human judgment, institutional authority, and relationship-building.

Organize and direct study abroad programs.

AI: Partial - AI can manage planning, logistics, communications, and risk analysis for study abroad programs, but cannot take on legal/ethical responsibility or provide on-the-ground leadership and emergency response.

Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.

AI: Partial - AI can accelerate literature review, data analysis, and manuscript drafting, but cannot reliably lead original research design, ethical oversight, novel theoretical insight, or assume scholarly responsibility for publication.

Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.

AI: Partial - AI can draft agendas, minutes, policy analyses and simulate contributions, but cannot hold institutional governance roles or participate with the accountability and nuanced deliberation humans provide.

Act as advisers to student organizations.

AI: Partial - AI can provide advice, resources, and mentorship suggestions to student organizations, but cannot fulfill the interpersonal, supervisory, and institutional-adviser responsibilities in full.

Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.

AI: Partial - AI can support supervision through assessment tools, feedback, and resource recommendations, but cannot fully replace human supervisors' mentorship, evaluative judgment, and responsibility for trainees.

Participate in campus and community events.

AI: Partial - AI can plan, promote, provide virtual presence, and generate materials for campus and community events, but cannot fully replace in-person engagement, relationship-building, and on-site representation.

Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.

AI: Partial - AI can draft well-structured grant proposals and supporting documents, but cannot manage the interpersonal, institutional negotiation, and real-world stewardship required to fully procure funding.

Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.

AI: Partial - AI can produce analyses, policy memos, and technical recommendations for government or industry, but cannot fully replace the client-facing trust, legal responsibility, and contextual judgment of a human consultant.