Exploring personal and contextual factors influencing pre-service English teachers' willingness to integrate AI into their future teaching practices

Despite the transformative potential that AI promises for English language teaching (ELT), there remains a paucity of inquiry into the readiness of pre-service English teachers (PSETs) to integrate AI into their future instructional practice, particularly within the Chinese educational context. Grounded in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), this study examines the personal and contextual predictors shaping PSETs' willingness to integrate AI (WIAI) into their future ELT endeavours. A questionnaire was administered to 306 PSETs, investigating the interrelationships among perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEU) of AI, AI-specific technological pedagogical content knowledge (AI-TPACK), AI language technological knowledge (AIL-TK), AI technological pedagogical knowledge (AI-TPK), AI self-efficacy (AISE), peer support (PS), and university support and resources (USAR) in relation to PSETs' WIAI. Structural equation modelling analysis substantiated 15 of the 21 hypothesised relationships. The complex interrelations were mapped to offer stakeholders with a theoretically grounded framework for supporting PSETs' WIAI in Chinese and other similar educational contexts.