Examining discontinuance of AI-mediated informal digital learning of English (AI-IDLE) among university students: Evidence from SEM and fsQCA
For researchers and practitioners in AI-supported language learning, this work extends the focus from adoption to post-adoption disengagement, though it is an incremental application of established frameworks (cognition-affect-conation) to a specific context.
This study examined university students' discontinuance intention towards AI-mediated informal digital learning of English (AI-IDLE), finding that dissatisfaction and frustration positively predict discontinuance intention, with frustration having a stronger effect. The study also identified multiple causal configurations leading to high discontinuance intention.
This study examined university students' discontinuance intention towards AI-mediated informal digital learning of English (AI-IDLE). Drawing on the cognition-affect-conation framework, the study investigated how three cognitive factors, namely disconfirmation, perceived complexity, and perceived risk, influence two affective responses, namely dissatisfaction and frustration, and how these affective responses predict discontinuance intention. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 746 Chinese university students who had experience using AI tools for informal English learning. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The SEM results showed that dissatisfaction and frustration positively predicted discontinuance intention, with frustration showing the stronger effect. Disconfirmation, perceived complexity, and perceived risk also positively influenced dissatisfaction and frustration. The fsQCA results further identified multiple sufficient configurations leading to high AI-IDLE discontinuance intention, indicating that discontinuance is shaped by causal complexity and equifinality rather than by a single necessary condition. These findings extend AI-IDLE research from adoption and engagement to post-adoption disengagement and provide implications for reducing learners' dissatisfaction, frustration, perceived complexity, and risk in AI-supported informal English learning.