Volume 30 Number 1, 2026 Beyond borders and screens in China: L2 motivation, digital literacy, and virtual intercultural experience in GenAI-mediated informal digital learning of English

Beyond borders and screens in China: L2 motivation, digital literacy, and virtual intercultural experience in GenAI-mediated informal digital learning of English

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April 3, 2026, 1:04 p.m.
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April 7, 2026, 1:08 a.m.
access-status:
open.access
bitstream:
[['https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstreams/abed63b7-83e8-42f0-957c-3026f79dea14/download', '30_01_10125-73673.pdf']]
bitstream_txt:
[['https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstreams/3aed9c3c-a1b3-4e8a-adb3-e427a9f25363/download', 'full_text']]
collection:
Volume 30 Number 1, 2026
contributor.author:
Zou, Minlin Li, Meiqi He, Xueyun
date.accessioned:
2026-04-03T01:27:51Z
date.available:
2026-04-03T01:27:51Z
date.copyright:
2026
date.issued:
2026-04-06
description.abstract:
Against the backdrop of the rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) into informal digital learning settings, this study investigates how Chinese university English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students’ L2 motivation interacts with their digital literacy and virtual intercultural experience (VIE) to shape their participation in GenAI-mediated informal digital learning of English (GenAI-IDLE). This study surveyed 568 Chinese undergraduate EFL students and employed a structural equation modeling approach to analyze the data. The findings reveal that students’ ideal L2 selves and ought-to L2 selves positively and significantly predict their digital literacy and GenAI-IDLE, respectively. While their ideal L2 selves make a positive and direct impact on their GenAI-IDLE, their ought-to L2 selves do not predict their VIE. The results also demonstrate that students’ digital literacy mediates the relationship between L2 motivation and GenAI-IDLE. Their digital literacy and VIE jointly play a chain mediating role in the association between L2 motivation and GenAI-IDLE. However, their VIE fails to mediate the link between the ought-to L2 self and GenAI-IDLE. By elucidating the motivational, digital, and behavioral mechanisms in GenAI-mediated informal learning environments, this study extends the application of Self-Determination Theory within in GenAI-powered educational psychology and provides pedagogical implications.
endingpage:
29
format.extent:
29
identifier.citation:
Zou, M. M., Li, M., & He, X. (2026). Beyond borders and screens in China: L2 motivation, digital literacy, and virtual intercultural experience in GenAI-mediated informal digital learning of English. Language Learning & Technology, 30(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.64152/10125/73673
identifier.doi:
https://doi.org/10.64152/10125/73673
identifier.issn:
1094-3501
identifier.uri:
https://hdl.handle.net/10125/73673
language:
eng
number:
1
publicationname:
Language Learning & Technology
publisher:
University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center Center for Language & Technology
rights.license:
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
rights.uri:
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
site_url:
/item/10125-73673/
startingpage:
1
subject:
Informal Digital Learning of English (IDLE), generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), L2 motivation, digital literacy, virtual intercultural experience (VIE)
title:
Beyond borders and screens in China: L2 motivation, digital literacy, and virtual intercultural experience in GenAI-mediated informal digital learning of English
type:
Article Text
volume:
30