Teachers’ Perceptions and Students’ Strategies in Using AI-Mediated Informal Digital Learning for Career ESL Writing

This study aims to explore teachers’ perceptions and students’ strategies when integrating AI-mediated informal digital learning of English tools (AI-IDLE) into career ESL writing instruction. This case study involved six university instructors and over 300 students in an English writing course. Although AI-IDLE has broadened English access beyond classrooms, existing research on writing skills often neglects students’ diverse strategies that correspond to their professional aspirations, as well as teachers’ perceptions. The data included a demographic questionnaire, think-aloud protocols for real-time assessment of cognitive processes during the task, and semi-structured interviews for teachers’ validation. Findings reveal three major student strategies: (1) explicit genre understanding, (2) student-driven selection of digital multimodal tools—such as Grammarly, ChatGPT, Canva with Magic Write, and Invideo—to integrate text with images, sound, and layout for improved rhetorical accessibility, and (3) alignment with students’ post-graduation career needs. Students’ work with these AI tools demonstrated that when they created projects aligned with professional identities and future job needs, they became more aware of how to improve their writing; however, the teachers expressed hopes and doubts about the tools’ effectiveness and authenticity of the students’ work. Suggestions to use AI-IDLE to improve writing were provided.