Purpose Recent research has underscored the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) tools on various psycho-affective factors in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. However, the role of multimodal AI tools in shaping learners’ emotional engagement within the classroom remains underexplored. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the contribution of multimodal AI tool adoption to EFL students’ emotional engagement.Design/methodology/approach A longitudinal-interventional design was employed. A sample of 265 EFL students participated in three phases: pretest, a one-year intervention delivered through multimodal AI technologies, and posttest. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to examine changes in emotional engagement.Findings The results revealed a significant improvement in participants’ emotional engagement from pretest to posttest following the one-year multimodal AI-mediated course.Originality/value This study contributes original evidence on the longitudinal effects of multimodal AI adoption on EFL learners’ emotional engagement – an area previously overlooked in the literature. By employing an interventional design, it offers methodological innovation beyond cross-sectional studies. The findings provide theoretical insights into the affective outcomes of AI integration and offer practical implications for EFL teachers and teacher educators seeking to foster emotionally engaging learning environments.
Cui et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
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