Between awareness and compliance: AI usage patterns and ethical orientation among EFL students

This study examined how EFL students interact with AI across four dimensions: the purposes for which they use it, their perceptions of its usefulness, their self-efficacy as AI users, and their ethical awareness in academic work. A cross-sectional explanatory sequential mixed methods design was employed with 413 students enrolled in an English preparatory program at a university in Türkiye. Data were collected through a researcher-developed questionnaire comprising four subscales grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model and the Computer Self-Efficacy framework, supplemented by semi-structured interviews. Non-users completed a structured multiple-response section indicating their reasons for avoidance. Findings reveal that students engage with AI mostly through corrective and supportive functions instead of dialogic or productive skill-building activity. Perceived usefulness and self-efficacy were both moderate. Ethical awareness scores showed a systematic awareness-compliance gap, with passive knowledge of AI limitations scoring much higher than reported behavioral compliance in areas such as disclosure and rule-following. Non-users cited preference for traditional methods and uncertainty about AI accuracy as main reasons for avoidance, and several reported contradictory institutional messages about AI. The findings carry implications for curriculum design and institutional AI policy in EFL contexts.