The feasibility of applying generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in college English teaching is theoretically viable. In accordance with the current requirements for the development of intelligent education, it meets the technical needs of intelligent education. GAI not only demonstrates superior processing capabilities in natural language processing but also presents simple and clear content displays in terms of visualization. Therefore, this paper utilizes the literature review method to sort through relevant domestic and international research on GAI and college English teaching, elucidating the current research status and clarifying the research direction. By outlining the basic concepts and educational applications of GAI, this paper summarizes the research content and provides a theoretical basis for the study. Through case analysis, with large language models (LLMs) as an example, this paper intuitively demonstrates the practical application of GAI in college English teaching, explicitly indicating the feasibility of GAI in teaching. This ensures that the research embodies certain research value from both theoretical and practical perspectives, further providing reference and guidance for similar studies.