Volume 30 Number 1, 2026

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/112676

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Now showing 1 - 12 of 12

GenAI-mediated activity theory (GMAT) for L2 teachers
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-05-04) Lee, Jang Ho; Hwang, Yohan; Lee, Seongyong
This study proposes the GenAI-Mediated Activity Theory (GMAT) as a conceptual framework for understanding how generative AI (GenAI) reshapes second language (L2) teachers’ teaching preparation and practices within complex pedagogical ecosystems. Methodologically, the paper adopts a model-building approach. It recontextualizes and synthesizes conceptual elements from Engeström’s (1999) expanded Activity Theory (AT) to construct the model. Thus, the study illuminates the evolving role of L2 teachers as adaptive, multi-positional agents of teaching. Specifically, teachers may adopt GenAI to refine instructional goals, co-create pedagogical content, negotiate ethical guidelines, and participate in collaborative professional networks. While previous AT-based studies have primarily examined how technologies mediate components within an activity system, the GMAT model contributes this work by theorizing how GenAI contributes to the evolution of sociotechnical and pedagogical ecosystems in L2 education. Furthermore, the study outlines concrete pedagogical implications by examining how specific triadic relationships among the components interact to generate new GenAI-mediated instructional environments. Overall, the GMAT model provides both a theoretical and practical foundation for guiding instructional design and teacher development in the era of GenAI-enhanced education.
Distributed agency in AI-assisted L2 writing
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-04-13) Chen, Pin-Hsi Patrick; Liu, Yichun
This longitudinal qualitative study examines distributed agency between human writers and generative AI in the context of L2 writing. Grounded in Bandura’s theory of agency, the study analyzes students’ written texts, reflective accounts, and AI interaction logs collected from Taiwanese university students. The findings indicate that human-AI distributed agency shapes the enactment of L2 writing across intentionality, forethought, self-reactiveness, and self-reflectiveness. Moreover, distributed agency both supports and constrains learners’ engagement, depending on how it is exercised.
Beyond borders and screens in China: L2 motivation, digital literacy, and virtual intercultural experience in GenAI-mediated informal digital learning of English
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-04-06) Zou, Minlin; Li, Meiqi; He, Xueyun
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.
Task-based language teaching in VR versus traditional settings
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-03-23) Ogawa, Koyo
This study compared Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) delivered in virtual reality (VR) and in traditional settings, examining learning gains, transfer, retention, and learner perceptions. 22 participants completed pretests, immediate posttests, transfer tests, and a questionnaire, while 10 of them, selected to balance proficiency across groups based on posttest scores, additionally completed a two-month delayed posttest and follow-up interviews. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed significant learning gains in both VR and traditional groups (p < .001; p = .006, in target discourse and p = .004; p = .008 in listening tests). ANCOVA indicated no immediate group difference in posttest scores (p = .205; p = .322) or in transfer measures (p = .608). After two months, a Mann–Whitney U test showed the VR group preserved target discourse significantly better than the traditional group (p = .036). Mann–Whitney U analyses of Likert-scale responses revealed greater enjoyment (p = .008), perceived retention (p = .009), reported difficulty (p = .01), and motivation (p = .033) in the VR group. Interview analyses (in vivo coding) highlighted VR affordances that promote contextualized practice and positive emotional engagement. These results suggest VR-TBLT may enhance long-term retention and learner engagement compared with traditional TBLT.
Multiliteracies for generative artificial intelligence-assisted digital multimodal composing: A technology-in-practice approach
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-03-16) Tang, Alexander Fukin; Honeycutt, David Byron; Matt Kessler
With recent trends toward integrating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the second language (L2) classroom, there has been a surge of research on using chatbots for language learning and teaching. However, GenAI chatbots are now starting to be examined in digital multimodal composing (DMC). DMC has been explored markedly over the past decade and provides an opportunity to examine how multiliteracies can be integrated in GenAI-assisted DMC. In this technology in practice forum, the benefits and challenges of integrating GenAI-assisted DMC are reported. Implemented in an American university-based intensive English program in the Pacific context, the GenAI-assisted DMC project was employed in a eight-week upper-beginning English as a Second Language class through a multiliteracies framework–consisting of situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice–drawing on pedagogical components for storytelling. The students created artifacts for future participants in the program. Reflections from the students indicate that engagement was sustained throughout the DMC process. However, the learners struggled with prompting the GenAI chatbot of their choice during the DMC task. By reflecting on opportunities to integrate GenAI-assisted DMC, this forum provides an example of how GenAI can be implemented in classrooms and the procedural steps involved in such a process. Lessons learned from this process are also discussed, which can be improved upon by future iterations.
Critical semiotic awareness in virtual exchange using digital cultural artefacts
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-03-09) Almijiwl, Wala; Satar, Müge
Virtual Exchange (VE) is a technology-enabled, people-to-people interaction (EVOLVE, n.d.). It can facilitate the digital-intercultural turn in language education, where multiliteracies is an important pedagogical goal. One key focus of multiliteracies is developing critical semiotic awareness (CSA) through reflections on relations between forms and meanings in contexts of use (Kern, 2015). Despite emerging research on how to foster semiotic awareness in the physical classroom (Lim et al., 2022), our understanding of how language learners construct CSA in VE remains limited. To address this gap, a qualitative case study was designed involving one pair of volunteer higher education language learners in the UK and Saudi Arabia (KSA). Data were collected over a six-week multiliteracies-informed VE, where participants engaged with digital cultural artefacts via videoconferencing. Synchronous video-mediated interactions were analysed using social semiotics. This involved a two-step analysis of: (1) the representation of signifiers on the artefacts participants talked about and (2) how the signifier’s meaning potentials were taken up and/or extended. Findings demonstrated participants’ evaluation of signs as they constructed meanings beyond what is available on the artefacts. We discuss the role of multiliteracies training, digital cultural artefacts, and VE interaction (intercultural communication) in the construction of CSA.
Custom GPT as mediator: Dynamic Assessment with beginner KFL learners
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-02-23) Kim, Minjin
This study examines how a custom GPT-based chatbot can mediate learner development within the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) through dynamic assessment (DA) with beginner-level learners of Korean as a Foreign Language. The model was fine-tuned using OpenAI’s My GPT platform, with a custom prompt specifying graduated mediation, responsive behavior guidelines, and target grammar points. Specifically, the study investigates how GPT operationalizes scaffolding processes in text-based dialogue by sustaining interaction, providing form-focused feedback, and adjusting support contingent on learner responsiveness. Ten English-speaking students in a Korean course at a U.S. university interacted with the chatbot weekly over four weeks. Qualitative analysis of 280 learner-GPT turns identified three mediation types: conversational, instructional, and developmental. Through these, the chatbot maintained natural and level-appropriate dialogue, delivered graduated mediation aligned with learner responsiveness, and used accurate learner responses as springboards to guide movement from the Zone of Actual Development toward the ZPD. Complementary quantitative measures showed higher uptake rates and significant gains in mean length of sentence and lexical diversity. These findings suggest that large language models, when carefully tuned, can emulate core principles of Vygotskian mediation and foster human-AI co-construction of learning within scaffolded interaction.
AI as a debate coach: A mixed-methods analysis of student self-efficacy and perceptions in an AI-assisted debate
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-02-17) Huang, Joan Wan-Ting
Debate is an effective pedagogical approach, yet it presents significant challenges for EFL learners. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots are increasingly integrated into education, their application in multi-skilled tasks like debate preparation remains underexplored. This study investigated the impact of a two-phase AI-assisted intervention on 48 EFL learners' debating self-efficacy and perceptions. Phase 1 involved traditional debate preparation without AI assistance, focusing on foundational skill development through instructor-led instruction. Phase 2 introduced AI chatbots for refinement of arguments, rebuttals, and delivery practice, allowing students to enhance their debates through AI-powered scaffolding. Data were collected via self-efficacy questionnaires at three time points (pre-intervention, post-Phase 1, and post-Phase 2), a post-intervention perceptions questionnaire, written reflections, and focus group interviews. Repeated-measures ANOVAs revealed significant stepwise increases in students’ debating self-efficacy across the three time points, with the most substantial gains observed in debate skills and language use. The perceptions questionnaire corroborated these findings, demonstrating that students rated AI as most effective for refining speeches, locating evidence, and developing arguments, while perceiving it as least helpful for oral delivery practice. Furthermore, qualitative analysis yielded nuanced and contextualized insights regarding both the benefits and limitations of AI-assisted debate preparation.
Learning grammar the explorative way: Integrating interactive grammar animations into CALL
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-02-11) Pust, Daniel
Interactive grammar animations (InGA) represent a further development of conventional grammar animations by building on their theoretical foundations in cognitive linguistics and multimedia pedagogy while extending their didactic potential. Unlike their predecessors, InGAs feature an input interface that enables learners to interact with the animated content, and thus, explore the meaningfulness and conceptual motivation of grammar, potentially leading to deeper engagement and a more comprehensive understanding. To develop an instructional concept that integrates this innovative learning medium, which to some extent defies conventional methods of tutorial computer-assisted language learning (CALL), a design-based approach was adopted, allowing for iterative testing and refinement across multiple cycles for didactic alignment. This paper reports on the sixth and final cycle, in which InGAs were put to the test for the first time in a fully ecological learning environment. The empirical findings indicate that task-based language teaching is an effective framework for integrating InGAs and suggest a possible expansion of the didactic repertoire of tutorial CALL. By discussing the performance and evaluation of the instructional concept and learning medium in the context of previous cycles, two key principles were derived to guide the development of analogous didactic scenarios in CALL: transparency and adaptability.
Review of Telecollaboration Applications in Foreign Language Classrooms
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-02-02) Wu, Sumei; Huang, Hui-Wen
Agency to autonomy in mediated data-driven learning: A longitudinal study
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-02-02) Oh, Sun-Young; Moon, Soyeon
Drawing on Sociocultural Theory (SCT), this longitudinal case study examines how secondary EFL learners exercise agency, engage, and develop autonomy within digitally mediated data-driven learning (DDL). It began with a 16-month compilation of a local learner corpus, followed by 7 months of four pedagogical phases—paper-based, hands-on, customized, and self-directed—progressing from teacher-guided instruction to autonomous engagement. Multimodal data reveal that learner autonomy in DDL goes beyond technical mastery of corpus tools; it unfolds as a socially, emotionally, and contextually mediated process shaped by identity, affect, and strategic growth. Suho, the Planner, progressed through structured, scaffolded support, while Jimin, the Seeker, exercised exploratory agency through multimodal engagement aligned with personal interests. Theoretically, the study extends SCT by demonstrating reciprocal mediation in digital learning environments and highlighting the interdependence between agency, identity, and affect. Pedagogically, findings underscore the central role of teacher expertise—particularly adaptive technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge—in making DDL accessible and sustaining learner engagement. Methodologically, the study highlights the value of longitudinal, multimodal, and ecologically situated approaches for capturing the process of agency, engagement, and autonomy.
Effects of virtual exchanges on learners’ affective and speaking outcomes
(University of Hawaii National Foreign Language Resource Center, 2026-01-26) Tabuchi, Kanako; Kobayashi, Sho; Nakagawa, Yuya; Roberts, John
Interactive speaking performance—understood as dialogic communication through peer exchanges, discussions, and collaborative dialogues involving real-time negotiation of meaning—together with affective improvement remain pedagogically and technologically challenging in language learning. The current study examines the impact of virtual exchanges (VE) on Japanese high school EFL learners’ Willingness to Communicate (WTC), International Posture (IP), and oral proficiency. Three VEs between 36 Japanese and 28 Taiwanese high school students were conducted using Google Meet. Analyses of four sources of data (e.g., an eight-item questionnaire on WTC, a 24-item questionnaire on IP, open-ended reflection responses, and paired face-to-face speaking tests) revealed four benefits: enhancement of WTC, promotion of IP, improvement of speaking proficiency, and development of partner-oriented communication. Participant self-perceptions of VEs correlated with prior enjoyment of English classes through junior high school. Furthermore, reflection text-mining indicated that both proactive and passive groups of Japanese participants developed cross-cultural awareness, with proactive learners reporting a sense of fulfillment and passive learners expressing self-criticism about English communication. These findings indicate that greater frequency and duration of international VEs enhance WTC, IP, and oral proficiency while encouraging proactive behaviors in language learners.

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