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

作者：Minlin Zou, Meiqi Li, Xueyun He · 发表于：Language learning & technology · 年份：2026 · DOI：10.64152/10125/73673 · 研究领域：Motivation and Self-Concept in Sports、Impact of Technology on Adolescents、EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning

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.