ARTICLE
21 October 2026

Research on the Reconstruction Pathways of English Majors’ Self-Efficacy in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

Dile Ning1 ,  You Chen1*
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1 School of International Business and Language Studies, Guangdong University of Science and Technology, Dongguan 523083, Guangdong, China
ssr 2026 , 8(9), 307–322; https://doi.org/10.26689/ssr.v8i9.15781
© 2026 by the Author. Licensee: Bio-Byword Scientific Publishing Pty Ltd, Australia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

This study, based on Davis’s (1989) technology acceptance model (TAM), Bandura’s (1982) self-efficacy theory (SET), and the concepts of AI literacy and human–AI collaboration (AILHAIC), constructs a structural equation model to examine the reconstruction pathways of English majors’ self-efficacy (SE) in the AI era. A total of 240 questionnaires were collected from English majors at a university in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, and 214 valid questionnaires were retained after data screening. The results show that AI Usage Perception (AIUP) has a significant positive effect on SE. AIUP also has significant positive effects on self-efficacy sources (SES) and AILHAIC. Both SES and AILHAIC have significant positive effects on SE. Simultaneously, Bootstrap analysis (5,000 resamples) indicates that AILHAIC (indirect effect=0.120) and SES (indirect effect=0.062) both significantly mediate the relationship between AIUP and SE, with AILHAIC playing a stronger mediating role. These findings reveal that AIUP influences SE both directly and indirectly through SES and AILHAIC, highlighting the key role of AILHAIC in reconstructing English majors’ SE. This study provides theoretical and practical implications for English teaching reform and SE enhancement in the AI era.

Keywords
AI usage perception (AIUP)
Self-efficacy (SE)
Self-efficacy sources (SES)
AI literacy and human–AI collaboration (AILHAIC)
English majors
Funding
This study is funded by the Quality Engineering Higher Education Teaching Reform Project of Guangdong University of Science and Technology in 2025 (Project Name: Research on Teaching Reform and Practice of Educational Psychology Course under the OBE Concept, Grant Number: GKZLGC2025192), the University-Level Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Project of Guangdong University of Science and Technology in 2025 (Project Name: Research on the Reform and Practice of Educational Psychology Instruction Under the Empowerment of Artificial Intelligence Technologies. Grant Number: GKZLGC2025208), and the First-Class Course Project of Guangdong University of Science and Technology in 2025 (Project Name: First- Class Course: Educational Psychology, Grant Number: GKZLGC2025317).
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