More Than Meets the Eye: Psychological Barriers to AI Language Assessment Adoption Among EFL Learners

Abstract

While there is considerable research on teachers' acceptance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education, there remains limited focus on the psychological barriers that learners encounter in adopting AI for language assessment, especially within English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. Therefore, this mixed-methods study aimed to explore the psychological barriers that impede EFL learners' acceptance or adoption of AI language assessment tools. In the qualitative phase, focus group discussions were used to gain a comprehensive understanding of participants' perspectives. The study involved 30 participants from different educational settings in Iran, including universities, language institutes, and schools, selected through purposeful sampling. Participants were divided into three groups for online discussions. Thematic analysis revealed three broad psychological factors as barriers to adoption: perceptual, emotional, and contextual factors. In the quantitative phase, an ordinal ranking scale was administered, asking participants to prioritize the perceived significance of these barriers based on their experiences. The findings showed that emotional factors were ranked as the most significant, followed by perceptual and contextual factors. The study offers valuable insights for EFL learners, educators, policymakers, and AI developers aiming to promote more effective adoption strategies.