Building and Practicing a Teaching Model Empowered by Generative AI for the Course "Selected Readings in English Literary Classics"

Abstract

Generative AI has begun to change foreign language and literature education in ways that are at once encouraging and surprising. Literature classrooms, in particular, face two recurring challenges. One is that technology is often brought in without a clear humanistic purpose; the other is that teachers still lack a dependable method for developing higher-order thinking. This paper reports on a five-stage teaching model - Perception, Analysis, Appreciation, Reflection and Evaluation - with generative AI embedded at every step. The model treats AI not as a convenient shortcut but as a genuine thinking companion. In practice, AI helps create immersive settings, supports data-driven reading of texts, facilitates shared aesthetic judgment, guides reflection on values, and draws feedback from several sources. Questionnaire responses, interview data and an examination of students' homework all indicate that the model strengthens literary competence, critical thinking and digital learning skills. The study therefore offers a workable scheme for upgrading liberal arts courses in the context of New Liberal Arts construction. It also leaves several questions open, such as the level of digital literacy required, how to make evaluation more accurate, and how technology can keep serving, rather than overriding, humanistic values.