Examining AI adoption in English academic writing: Do L2 writing selves, enjoyment, and education level matter?

IF 3.4 1区文学 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH

Journal of English for Academic Purposes Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-02-14 DOI:10.1016/j.jeap.2026.101651

Jiaozhi Liang , Fang Huang , Timothy Teo

{"title":"Examining AI adoption in English academic writing: Do L2 writing selves, enjoyment, and education level matter?","authors":"Jiaozhi Liang , Fang Huang , Timothy Teo","doi":"10.1016/j.jeap.2026.101651","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>There is a paucity of quantitative research on AI adoption in English academic writing. To narrow this gap, the current study explored the influence of L2 writing selves, English academic writing enjoyment, and education level on AI adoption by 338 Chinese university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners (including 188 undergraduates and 150 postgraduates) in academic writing. Data were gathered via an online questionnaire and analyzed through structural equation modelling. Our results suggested that the ideal L2 writing self was a significant antecedent to perceived usefulness and ease of use, but neither the ideal nor the ought-to self significantly predicted AI usage intentions. In addition, English academic writing enjoyment and education level moderated the relationship between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention. The research model explained 71.5% of the variance in students' intentions to use AI. Overall, this study revealed the important roles of the ideal L2 writing self, enjoyment, and education level in shaping EFL learners’ autonomous AI adoption. Teachers are advised to make students use AI critically, boost their enjoyment in academic writing, and establish AI adoption guidelines for undergraduate and graduate students respectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":47717,"journal":{"name":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","volume":"80 ","pages":"Article 101651"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4000,"publicationDate":"2026-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of English for Academic Purposes","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1475158526000238","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2026/2/14 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

There is a paucity of quantitative research on AI adoption in English academic writing. To narrow this gap, the current study explored the influence of L2 writing selves, English academic writing enjoyment, and education level on AI adoption by 338 Chinese university English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners (including 188 undergraduates and 150 postgraduates) in academic writing. Data were gathered via an online questionnaire and analyzed through structural equation modelling. Our results suggested that the ideal L2 writing self was a significant antecedent to perceived usefulness and ease of use, but neither the ideal nor the ought-to self significantly predicted AI usage intentions. In addition, English academic writing enjoyment and education level moderated the relationship between perceived usefulness and behavioral intention. The research model explained 71.5% of the variance in students' intentions to use AI. Overall, this study revealed the important roles of the ideal L2 writing self, enjoyment, and education level in shaping EFL learners’ autonomous AI adoption. Teachers are advised to make students use AI critically, boost their enjoyment in academic writing, and establish AI adoption guidelines for undergraduate and graduate students respectively.

查看原文本刊更多论文

考察人工智能在英语学术写作中的应用：第二语言写作自我、享受和教育水平重要吗？

关于人工智能在英语学术写作中的应用，目前还缺乏定量研究。为了缩小这一差距，本研究以338名中国大学英语作为外语学习者（包括188名本科生和150名研究生）为研究对象，探讨了二语写作自我、英语学术写作享受和教育水平对学术写作中人工智能采用的影响。通过在线问卷收集数据，并通过结构方程建模进行分析。我们的研究结果表明，理想的二语写作自我是感知有用性和易用性的重要前提，但理想自我和应该自我都不能显著预测人工智能的使用意图。此外，英语学术写作乐趣和受教育程度对感知有用性和行为意向的关系有调节作用。该研究模型解释了学生使用人工智能意愿差异的71.5%。总的来说，本研究揭示了理想的二语写作自我、享受和教育水平在塑造英语学习者自主采用人工智能方面的重要作用。建议教师培养学生批判性地使用人工智能，提高他们在学术写作中的乐趣，并分别为本科生和研究生制定人工智能应用指南。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Journal of English for Academic Purposes Multiple-

CiteScore

6.60

自引率

13.30%

发文量

审稿时长

57 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of English for Academic Purposes provides a forum for the dissemination of information and views which enables practitioners of and researchers in EAP to keep current with developments in their field and to contribute to its continued updating. JEAP publishes articles, book reviews, conference reports, and academic exchanges in the linguistic, sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic description of English as it occurs in the contexts of academic study and scholarly exchange itself.