Enhancing Esp Student Critical Thinking Skills And Vocabulary Acquisition Through A Genai-Based Project

UNESCO (2023) has called for educators to use pedagogical approaches that prioritize human agency and a responsible interaction between humans and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI). The present study, therefore, sought to design and implement an innovative 5-stage GenAI-based project with Sports Science English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students. Specifically, the objective of the project was for students to create multimodal texts for promotional purposes while developing both critical thinking skills and vocabulary range. Upon completing the project, 42 students participated in a survey, analyzed with both quantitative and qualitative methods, to gauge the impact of the project. Regarding critical thinking skills, 95.2% of students revealed they learned it was important to use these skills when using chatbots, emphasizing the need to verify GenAI-generated content and external sources a chatbot uses. Concerning vocabulary learned, 85.7% of the students, irrespective of their self-perceived level, reported learning useful topic-based and general vocabulary, thus strongly implying generalized intentional and incidental vocabulary learning. The study’s main conclusion is that GenAI-based projects, when designed to primarily assess student critical reasoning, can create optimal conditions for vocabulary acquisition and critical thinking skill development. This approach can also have significant implications for GenAI-related teaching practice and student assessment. Keywords: Critical thinking; Vocabulary learning; GenAI; Project-based learning; ESP; Multimodal text creation