Toward a Cognitive-Psychological Framework of AI Literacy and Willingness to Communicate in AI-Enhanced EFL Learning

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping English as a foreign language (EFL) education, yet the mechanisms through which AI-related capabilities influence learners’ communicative outcomes remain insufficiently integrated across disciplines. Drawing conceptually on two provided publications one empirical study examining artificial intelligence literacy, AI learning self-efficacy, foreign language classroom anxiety, and willingness to communicate in AI-enhanced EFL contexts, and one interdisciplinary review of cognitive psychology-based artificial intelligence this paper develops a synthetic framework that connects technological competence, cognitive-psychological processes, and communicative behavior. The paper argues that AI literacy should not be treated merely as a technical skill set. Rather, in AI-supported language learning it operates as a psychologically meaningful readiness that shapes how learners interpret AI tools, evaluate their own capability, regulate anxiety, and decide whether to participate in communication. Building on self-efficacy theory, research on willingness to communicate, and the cognitive-psychological view that effective AI must engage perception, emotion, attention, and human–computer interaction, the paper proposes a four-part conceptual model linking AI literacy, AI learning self-efficacy, foreign language classroom anxiety, and willingness to communicate. It further identifies three bridging propositions. First, AI literacy functions as a cognitive resource only when translated into agentic confidence. Second, the emotional climate of AI-enhanced learning mediates the communicative value of technological competence. Third, psychologically responsive AI environments are more likely than purely functional AI environments to foster communication. Two tables summarize the source publications and translate the synthesis into an agenda for research and pedagogy. The paper contributes by offering a theoretically integrated account of communicative readiness in AI-enhanced EFL learning and by outlining design implications for psychologically informed AI-supported instruction.