Acceptance of AI-gamified adaptive learning in EFL: bifactor evidence for essential unidimensionality and the limits of subscale scoring

A study on AI-gamified adaptive learning in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) contexts suggests that learners' acceptance of these tools is better understood as a general evaluative orientation rather than distinct, separable subdimensions. This challenges conventional multidimensional measurement approaches often used in such evaluations. The research involved 401 Kazakhstani EFL students using a 13-item instrument.

Why it matters

Understanding how users accept new technologies, particularly in educational or training contexts, is crucial for effective implementation and investment. This research highlights the need for rigorous empirical validation of measurement tools, ensuring that strategic decisions regarding technology adoption are based on accurate and well-understood user perceptions. It can guide resource allocation for development and deployment of learning technologies.

Key insights

• AI and gamification are increasingly integrated into language learning methodologies.
• Learner acceptance of these combined tools is commonly assessed using multidimensional questionnaires, though their dimensional structure is often not empirically tested.
• The study investigated if assumed subdimensions of AI-gamified adaptive learning acceptance are empirically separable in EFL learners.
• Analysis of data from 401 EFL students in Kazakhstan indicated that acceptance is more accurately represented as a general evaluative orientation.
• The findings suggest that common subscale scoring of such acceptance questionnaires may be inappropriate if the underlying construct is essentially unidimensional.
• Methodologies included reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and competing confirmatory models (one-factor, four-factor, second-order, and bifactor models), along with the heterotrait-monotrait ratio of correlations (HTMT).

Source

Frontiers in Education — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2026.1929123