Chinese EFL learners’ GenAI literacy in digital multimodal composing and self-regulated writing: chain mediation effects of needs satisfaction and creative self-concept

Purpose: Digital multimodal composing (DMC) has emerged as a new literacy practice in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing that involves the production of a text comprising linguistic and non-linguistic meaning-making resources. It has been assumed that EFL learners with high levels of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) literacy in DMC would increasingly exercise their writing self-regulated learning (SRL) skills due to more opportunities for expression and activation of thoughts. However, the psychological mechanism underlying the impacts of students’ GenAI literacy in DMC on their writing SRL remains underexplored, which is the research purpose of our study.Methodology: Based on the self-determination theory and exploration and exploitation theory, this study developed a chain-mediation model to investigate whether needs satisfaction and creative self-concept can mediate the relationship between GenAI literacy in DMC and writing SRL. A total of 634 Chinese EFL learners were recruited to participate in this research and completed online questionnaires that measured GenAI literacy in DMC, needs satisfaction, creative self-concept, and self-regulated writing. And then the data analysis was performed through structural equation modeling in AMOS 28.0.Findings and value: Our study found that creative self-concept exerted significant mediation effects between GenAI literacy in DMC and writing SRL, while needs satisfaction did not. And the chain mediation effects of needs satisfaction and creative self-concept were significant. Our research may contribute to developing a new syllabus that integrates GenAI literacy in DMC as a new literacy practice for promoting students’ writing skills.