Entangled cognition in EFL education - The role of generative AI

Oct 15, 2026

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The study examines generative artificial intelligence, specifically ChatGPT, in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning, focusing on the mediating role of entangled cognition and effects on tourism students’ learning outcomes. A quasi-experiment with 96 participants (48 experimental, 48 control) compared a custom virtual language course using ChatGPT for personalized practice and culture learning against traditional instruction. Difference-in-differences results show significant treatment effects, improving cognitive offloading, distributed cognition, and metacognitive awareness, while supporting collaborative learning and cultural competence.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages17

Reading Time43 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Study design and participants

Measures and data collection

Findings and implications

OPEN ACCESS Research Article Contemporary Educational Technology, 2025, 17(4), ep619 ISSN: 1309-517X (Online) Entangled cognition in EFL education: The role ofgenerative AI Liwei Hsu 1* 0000-0002-4901-744X 1 Graduate Institute of Hospitality Management, National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism, Kaohsiung City, TAIWAN * Corresponding author: [liweihsu@mail.nkuht.edu.tw](liweihsu@mail.nkuht.edu.tw) Citation: Hsu, L. (2025) . Entangled cognition in EFL education: The role of generative AI. Contemporary Educational Technology, 17(4), ep619. [https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/17621](https://doi.org/10.30935/cedtech/17621) ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT | Received: 17 Mar 2025
Accepted: 29 Aug 2025
INTRODUCTION | This study examines the use of generative artificial intelligence, i.e., ChatGPT, in English as a foreign language (EFL) learning, emphasizing the mediating role of entangled cognition and the effects of the learning outcomes of the tourism students. The research was designed to a quasiexperiment which included 96 participants (48 in an experimental group and 48 in a control group) who were sampled based on convenience to the Spring 2024 semester in one university in southern Taiwan. The “custom virtual language course” experimental group used ChatGPT for personalized language practice and culture learning, control group received traditional learning. A questionnaire package, including the cognitive technology use questionnaire (CTUQ), extended mind scale (EMS), distributed cognition questionnaire (DCQ), metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI), and TOEIC pre- and post-tests was administered to collect the data. The difference-in-differences design was adopted and observed a significant treatment effect such that the treatment group had an average increase in mean scores of 37.98 (standard deviation [SD] = 7.80) compared to 19.62 (SD = 7.80) for the control group and, therefore, an average treatment effect of 21.38 (95% confidence interval [18.74, 24. 01]) . Findings suggest that ChatGPT promotes cognitive offloading, distributed cognition, and metacognitive awareness (CTUQ mean [M] = 3.701, EMS M = 3.421, DCQ M = 3.721, MAI M = 3.551), and the development of collaborative learning and cultural competence. These results reveal ChatGPT’s potential to reform EFL education, but they also indicate the necessity to mitigate the risks associated with ethical quandaries and over-dependence. Future studies need to create specific scales that can be used for entangled cognition and examine the long-term effects on cognition.
Keywords: ChatGPT, difference-in-differences approach, EFL education, entangled cognition, generative artificial intelligence | | --- | --- | Recent breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies, such as ChatGPT by OpenAI, have revolutionized many professional areas including English as a foreign language (EFL) teaching and learning practices (Huang & Mizamoto 2024; Yang & Li 2024) . GenAI’s potential in offering adaptive instructional personalization and individualized feedback has the promise to transform EFL learning as it facilitates self-regulated domain knowledge acquisition among different users (Zadoroznyy & Lai 2024) . ChatGPT is particularly powerful for natural language processing (NLP) and can be used toward human-like conversation, human-question-answering, and content generation–bridging the gap between theoretical learning through factual knowledge to practical competency in EFL settings. Nonetheless, the successful incorporation of GenAI into education rests on one critical group–students and educators–whose artificial intelligence (AI) literacy (knowledge), awareness and attitudes hold sway over its adoption (Asio, 2024; Asio & Gadia, 2024; Asio & Soriano, 2025) . How students engage with GenAI tools that support functions such as ChatGPT is not only a matter of their AI literacy but also reflects attitudes. Recent studies show

FAQs

What was the focus of this study on using ChatGPT in EFL education?

The study focused on how generative AI mediates learning outcomes through entangled cognition, and how this affects EFL tourism students.

How was the experiment designed and what were the two groups?

A quasi-experiment included 96 participants sampled by convenience. The experimental group used a custom virtual language course with ChatGPT for personalized language practice and culture learning, while the control group received traditional learning.

What measurable learning effects were reported for the treatment group?

The treatment group showed an average increase in mean scores versus the control group, along with higher indicators of cognitive offloading, distributed cognition, and metacognitive awareness, supporting collaborative learning and cultural competence.

Oct 15, 2026

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