Legal, Affective, and Policy Dimensions of the AI Ecosystem in Language Education

The integration of artificial intelligence into language education occurs within a complex ecosystem of legal frameworks, emotional responses, institutional policies, and assessment practices. This paper moves beyond pedagogical considerations to examine three interconnected areas: first, legal issues including intellectual property, liability, misrepresentation, and privacy concerns raised by processing learner data; second, affective dimensions including technostress, precarity, digital wellbeing, and the impact of working alongside systems that appear to surpass human capabilities; third, the policy environment, arguing that AI must be addressed through institutional dialogue, coherent guidelines, and curriculum integration. Assessment is also addressed, arguing for a shift from product-focused to process-inclusive approaches. Drawing on the Gartner Hype Cycle, the paper argues that the transition from technology-focused enthusiasm to productive integration is neither automatic nor inevitable, and that attending to ecosystem-level concerns is essential for sustainable AI adoption.