Discourse, Identity, and Cognitive Load: An Inquiry of EFL Learners Use of Language in AI-Mediated Sociocultural Contexts
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25130/jfa.conf.10.5.19Keywords:
cognitive load, learner’s profiles, context, artificial intelligence, thematic analysis, motivation, sociocultural theory, and EFL students LearningAbstract
This study examines how learners of English as a foreign language use language to create identity, stimulate motivation, and manage cognitive stress in AI-mediated learning contexts. The study emphases on the sociocultural backgrounds of the learners. The analysis involves a thematically sensitive discourse coding aligned with Self-Determination Theory, Sociocultural Theory, and Cognitive Load Theory. The study is grounded on semi-structured interviews with fifteen students from two university faculties. The findings reveal that learner strategies were to employ narrative discourses and evaluative language to confirm identity or reduce linguistic dominance. Students also use metaphors and temporal markers to describe cognitive load. Peer and teacher prompts, as well as AI tools, also reflect the learners' identities. It was revealed that contextual factors, such as ways of peer interaction, resource limits, and faculty norms stimulus the occurrence and understanding of these practices. The study shows that in AI-enhanced classrooms, language practise assists as a medium that supports sociocultural bonds and makes motivational dynamics more stable. These findings support the proposal of pedagogical approaches which are identity-sensitive, feedback designed linguistic approaches, and assessments which are aware of the discourse of AI tools in EFL contexts. The study is an attempt to add to the improvement of applied linguistics in the field of technology-mediated language acquisition, by focusing on the discourse as a way to access motivational experience and linking the micro-level linguistic practices to larger sociocultural processes. .
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Appendixes
The questions asked in the interview
The methodology guarantee that every question is an open-ended, experience-focused, and closely related to research questions and theoretical frameworks.
