In the digital age, educators must continuously adapt their functional skills to meet evolving classroom and communication demands. English language proficiency and cultural understanding are increasingly essential for teachers in multilingual and multicultural environments. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital informal learning have emerged as innovative tools to support this development, especially in underserved educational settings.Despite growing interest in AI in education, limited studies focus on how AI and informal digital platforms collectively contribute to English language acquisition, cultural awareness, and overall functional skills development among teachers, particularly in Islamic secondary schools in Southern Pakistan.The study is a quantitative experiment which examines how AI tools can help to improve the knowledge of English language, how digital informal learning leads to cultural awareness and how both can contribute to the development of functional skills wielded by teachers. The representative selection of 450 teachers in the Islamic secondary schools was chosen subserviently. An analysis of such data was undertaken by means of a structured questionnaire and SPSS (2021) using descriptive statistics and independent sample t-tests. The results demonstrate that AI-based tools are extremely helpful regarding the learning of the English language, and informal digital platforms increase the level of intercultural sensitivity in teachers. These are combined to have a positive contribution in the development of key functional skills like communication, critical thinking and problem solving. The research promotes changes to the education policy that should embrace AI and digital resources within the teacher development plans. It offers critical information to policymakers, educational leaders, and developers of EdTech who would wish to enable linguistically and culturally diverse areas teachers.

Artificial Intelligence; English language acquisition; digital ludic learning; cultures awareness; useful skills; Islamic schools; teacher education; Southern Pakistan

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Al-Fadhli, S. H. (2021). Artificial intelligence in education: Enhancing teachers' and students' performance. Education and Information Technologies, 26(6), 7055–7072. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-021-10619-3

Almusharraf, N., & Almusharraf, A. (2021). Integrating digital technologies in education: Teachers’ perspectives on benefits and challenges. Education and Information Technologies, 26(3), 3289–3310. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10440-y

Chen, L., Chen, P., & Lin, Z. (2021). Artificial intelligence in education: A review. IEEE Access, 9, 7473–7489. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2020.3048516

Nguyen, H., Walker, R., & Truong, H. (2022). Informal learning in the digital age: A systematic review. Computers & Education, 188, 104583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104583

Wang, Q., Xin, M., & Li, Y. (2021). Teachers’ professional development in digital environments: A meta-analysis. British Journal of Educational Technology, 52(2), 512–533. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13078

Zawacki-Richter, O., Marín, V. I., Bond, M., & Gouverneur, F. (2020). Systematic review of research on artificial intelligence applications in higher education – where are the educators? International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 17(1), 39. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00200-8