Students’ development of AI metacognitive awareness in an EAP course: A qualitative inspection through the Experiential Learning Theory

While metacognitive awareness is crucial for students to utilise AI tools strategically and critically, little research has been conducted to investigate this in the AI-empowered learning context. The present study examined this critical issue through collecting reflective journals and interview data from 23 students enrolled in an EAP course at a Chinese university. Drawing on the Experiential Learning Theory, which delineates how learners adapt and build new knowledge and skills through concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualisation, and active experimentation, this study found that students engaged with AI tools in a dynamic, iterative, and critical process when completing three course assignments. Through such engagement, they reflected on the effectiveness of specific tools and strategies and conceptualised AI’s utility in providing different types of assistance, culminating into the development of both specific and integrated, abstract metacognitive knowledge about when, where, why, and how to use AI in their learning. Such complex, interconnected knowledge was found to have further influenced their AI use through purposefully planning, exploring, monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting their AI strategies. The study also disclosed a generally negative perceived impact of AI use on language development, indicating the potentially detrimental effect of instrumental motivation for AI use. These findings highlight the need to reconceptualise metacognitive awareness as a synergistic system and the importance of fostering such awareness among students. Pedagogical implications are also drawn for teachers to design instructional activities that encourage students to actively reflect on their interactions with AI and regulate their AI strategies.