Papers by Elena Shalevska
International Journal "Teacher", 2025
Translating proverbs and idioms poses a significant challenge for translators worldwide. Thus, it... more Translating proverbs and idioms poses a significant challenge for translators worldwide. Thus, it is no wonder that AI models seem to struggle, too. These expressions often rely on cultural context, figurative meaning, and linguistic creativitythings that AI models cannot really replicate. Recognizing this, this study examines how three AI models-ChatGPT, Gemini, and DeepSeek-handle the translation of Macedonian proverbs and idioms into English. The findings reveal several patterns: Explanation accuracy varies though all AI models consistently provide a two-part translation; they all favor direct translations over idiomatic equivalents, provide uniform translations of simpler proverbs, but show significant variability in word choice for more complex ones, and fail to maintain stylistic elements such as rhyme, alliteration, and wordplay.
International Journal "Teacher", 2024
Emojis are employed to enhance communication in the digital age on the daily. And the digital-nat... more Emojis are employed to enhance communication in the digital age on the daily. And the digital-natives, the Gen-Zers, seem to be particularly creative when it comes to their use. Recognizing this, this qualitative study examines the evolving use of one particular emojithe skull emoji (💀), as a tone tag within Gen-Z internet slang. By analyzing various examples from different social media platforms, the paper highlights how this emoji, beyond its conventional representation of death, has been repurposed by this generation of speakers to denote laughter or embarrassment. The study further argues that the modern use of the skull emoji serves a dual function: it not only signifies humor/awkwardness but also acts as a tool to separate text, thereby being used as a makeshift punctuation mark.

International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews , 2025
This empirical, mixed-approach research investigates whether different popular Generative AI mode... more This empirical, mixed-approach research investigates whether different popular Generative AI models such as ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot show political bias, particularly against conservative viewpoints. The study uses the popular political affiliation testthe Political Compassto assess the political leanings of the AI's responses. By analyzing the Political Compass Test scores and the individual output provided by the AI models, the study finds that the models' responses consistently align with more liberal, left-hand standpoints, indicating a potential bias against conservative ideologies. While recognizing the role users play in shaping AI outputs, the study emphasizes the importance of these models providing a neutral baseline. Neutral AI systems are critical to ensuring balanced political discourse, avoiding the amplification of existing inequalities, and supporting informed democratic engagement. These findings contribute to the ongoing discussion about the impartiality and fairness of AI systems in political discourse.

Teacher, Nov 12, 2023
Across epochs, both philosophers and educators have harnessed literature's power in language teac... more Across epochs, both philosophers and educators have harnessed literature's power in language teaching, recognizing its unique benefits for language learners. Unfortunately, the Macedonian foreign language teaching system underutilizes literature in EFL instruction despite the many benefits offered by such an approach. Thus, Macedonian students are only given mere fragments of literature in their EFL textbookspieces of writing stripped of literary authenticity and valuable language acquisition potential. Recognizing the proven benefits of implementing literature, and the increasing interest in using it in EFL/ESL classes in recent decades, this study aims to explore teachers' perceptions of literature as a vital tool for improving students' language skills. This small-scale, mixed-approach qualitative and quantitative study, based on a survey for EFL teachers, found that the participants believed that there are numerous potential benefits of introducing literature into their classes. Although the teachers voiced certain apprehension about their students' reading habits and highlighted some challenges with tailoring the reading activities to learners with varying levels of proficiency, they remained convinced that literature in the EFL classes can foster improved speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills.

Učitel/Teacher, May 1, 2024
The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has permanently changed life as we know it. And educatio... more The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has permanently changed life as we know it. And education has been no exception. Understanding the issues and benefits that may come with the implementation of AI into higher education, in particular, this study examines the impact of advanced AI models, like ChatGPT, on academic integrity. By employing a mixed-methods approach, the study gathers insights from undergraduate students at the University "St. Kliment Ohridski" in Bitola, North Macedonia, exploring their views on AI's role in academic practices. By identifying the key points through a brief literature review, this study finds that the concerns about the use of AI in education are indeed foundedconcerns including potential for cheating and the ethical dilemmas posed by such technologies. Some of these concerns were also confirmed by the data obtained through our survey. A sample of 114 undergraduate students kindly provided their responses for this study, helping further our insights with their perspective. The findings from the survey revealed that students are moderately comfortable with using AI for academic purposes, with a notable portion of them admitting to using ChatGPT without disclosure to professors. The reasons behind the undisclosed use of AI, according to the data collected, include pressures for high grades, time constraints and the accepted belief that cheating is "what everyone is doing". Despite its limitations, such as reliance on self-reported data and its focus on a specific geographic and academic context, we believe that the study still manages to make a small, yet significant contribution to the ethical challenges posed by AI in education.
RATE Issues, May 30, 2024
This study explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative expression, focusing... more This study explores the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative expression, focusing on the emergence of AI-generated poetry. It overviews existing literature on AI and its integration into literature, emphasizing AI poetry specifically. At the heart of this study are three poems generated by the AI model ChatGPT 4. Through a critical analysis of these poems and their prompts, the study found that, to a certain extent, AI can mirror human poetic expression producing complex poems with numerous literary devices. However, AI's creativity is constrained by training material, prompts, and prompters, signaling both AI's potential and limitations in shaping contemporary poetry.

Teacher, Nov 12, 2023
Language constitutes an indispensable facet of human existence It facilitates communication and p... more Language constitutes an indispensable facet of human existence It facilitates communication and perspective-sharing while allowing us to mould it to fit our unique needs. Foreign language proficiency adds an additional layer of such skills. Thus, people have been motivated to learn another language since time immemorial. As cultures and languages have intertwined and exposure to multimedia in different languages has grown, the number of bilinguals has grown, and with that, the opportunities for language transfer, as well. Language learners in North Macedonia, especially the ones who learn English have been becoming increasingly more proficient. This progress has been so substantial that educators have observed cases of influence from the second language (L2) to the first language (L1). Educators have noted various instances where this influence occurs such as: capitalizing certain words that aren't meant to be capitalized in Macedonian, using English abbreviations incorrectly, mixing collocations, and atypical code-switching. Using observation during non-English classes and breaks, this small-scale study aimed to qualitatively investigate and interpret the L2-L1 transfer patterns in primary school students, and discuss them in a wider context using additional electronic resources. The results highlighted the numerous instances of such interlanguage influence i.e., mistakes that students make when using their mother tongue due to English.
Učitel/Teacher, May 1, 2024
Emojis are employed to enhance communication in the digital age on the daily. And the digital-nat... more Emojis are employed to enhance communication in the digital age on the daily. And the digital-natives, the Gen-Zers, seem to be particularly creative when it comes to their use. Recognizing this, this qualitative study examines the evolving use of one particular emojithe skull emoji (💀), as a tone tag within Gen-Z internet slang. By analyzing various examples from different social media platforms, the paper highlights how this emoji, beyond its conventional representation of death, has been repurposed by this generation of speakers to denote laughter or embarrassment. The study further argues that the modern use of the skull emoji serves a dual function: it not only signifies humor/awkwardness but also acts as a tool to separate text, thereby being used as a makeshift punctuation mark.

English Teaching Just Got an Upgrade: How Ai is Revolutionizing Tesol
Teacher
The field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is ever- evolving, and as su... more The field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) is ever- evolving, and as such exploring the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in language teaching and learning is becoming increasingly important. AI-powered language learning tools, such as chatbots, are changing the way students learn and practice English. As these AI-powered chatbots gain momentum, educators worldwide discuss their potential implications on the process of language teaching. By examining the potential use of chatbots such as ChatGPT, this paper aims to contribute to the limited available literature on AI and TESOL and provide valuable insights for teachers on the benefits and challenges of incorporating AI in their daily work. Discussing the ways chatbots can enhance ESL/EFL classes, as well as the ways they can hinder the learning process, due to issues related to academic dishonesty, this paper highlights both the advantages and the disadvantages of such emerging technologies, as well...

Journal on English Language Teaching, 2021
Teaching ESL/EFL in a rather small, developing country has its challenges – most of the schools d... more Teaching ESL/EFL in a rather small, developing country has its challenges – most of the schools do not have proper IT equipment and the students are taught in the same way as students were over 20 years ago. With technology on the rise, the need for a technology-aided teaching process has become evident. Students expect certain technology-based activities during the teaching process. But, unfortunately, such activities cannot be implemented with the existing conditions. With the rise of the Covid-19, remote teaching became the sole teaching model in multiple countries, North Macedonia not being the exception. As teaching remotely slowly became the norm, students, some for the first time ever, took part in technology-aided activities and thoroughly enjoyed them. Although the pandemic has brought many disadvantages to education, one unforeseen advantage arose – students in North Macedonia engaged in online games and different activities that made ESL/EFL more interesting and exciting ...

Social networks’ users as well as Internet portals, forums, web-pages, blogs etc. have developed ... more Social networks’ users as well as Internet portals, forums, web-pages, blogs etc. have developed their own unique communicational system that might seem incomprehensible to people above a certain age, with little to no internet presence. These systems enables them to communicate freely their ideas, thoughts, jokes, funny anecdotes as well as their critiques towards their societies and political leaders in a much more creative way than the traditional. This Internet-communicational system mostly relies on the usage of emoticons, GIFs and memes. This paper will focus on the memes as one of the internet communication phenomena and their specific socio-linguistic features that make them vastly interesting to both linguists and sociologists. Memes, as defined, are part of the online culture; mostly jokes, that are presented through mediums such as image+text or GIF+text combinations or just plain text and are spread virally on all Internet-based platforms, changing along the way. This pa...

The Online Journal of New Horizons in Education, 2021
As ESL/EFL studies become more focused on group-work and pair-work, introverted students remain i... more As ESL/EFL studies become more focused on group-work and pair-work, introverted students remain in the background of the modern classrooms. With the majority of the newer student textbooks focusing on team building and joint activities, introverted students cannot step out of the extroverts' shadow. Research even suggests that teachers prefer the extroverted students who happily participate in class discussions and group activities over the quiet, inward-oriented introverts. Many regard the introverted students as shy, but introversion is not limited to shyness. This paper will discuss the ways in which introverts can improve their participation in class and improve their skills for working as a part of a group. Small but meaningful changes to the ways we teach ESL/EFL can influence the teaching process for the introverts greatly.
Affirmative Knowledge Should Be Easily Accessible. We are in an age when so much knowledge is a... more Affirmative Knowledge Should Be Easily Accessible. We are in an age when so much knowledge is at our fingertips, but we have to have more open and transparent with academic work. They should share their information so smart people can use it and make our world better. We must find a way to push our lives forward, and the easiest way to do that is to put the information necessary in the hands of people that can change the world.
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Papers by Elena Shalevska