Gen AI Literacy and Acceptance Among EFL Teachers: An Exploration Through the UTAUT Model and Self‐Determination Theory

ABSTRACT The widespread penetration of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) in foreign language education highlights the urgency for English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers to improve their Gen AI literacy. Previous research, however, has paid insufficient attention to the Gen AI literacy of university‐level EFL teachers in China, with a notable scarcity of mixed‐methods studies in this specific setting. Drawing on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Self‐Determination Theory (SDT), this mixed‐methods study involved 305 Chinese university EFL teachers and combined structural equation modelling (SEM) with semi‐structured interviews to investigate the relationship between Gen AI literacy and its acceptance. The results revealed Gen AI literacy exerts a positive impact on all UTAUT dimensions and behavioural intention (BI); performance expectancy (PE), effort expectancy (EE), social influence (SI) and facilitating conditions (FC) all positively predict BI, with these four variables playing multiple parallel mediating roles in the relationship between Gen AI literacy and BI. Qualitative findings corroborated these results. The study enriches Gen AI literacy research and provides guidance for EFL teachers to adapt to the era.