English Learning Experiences and Lower-Level Learners’ Participation in an AI-Supported Project-Based Language Learning Course for College Students

This qualitative investigation explores how project-based language learning (PBLL), complemented by artificial intelligence tools within a conventional classroom context, shapes students’ English learning experiences and reveals the participation trajectories of lower-level learners in an English for college students course at A University in Korea. Drawing on 17 questionnaires, 16 group reports, and 17 reflective journals, the study found that AI-supported PBLL can function as a learner-centered classroom model in which students collaboratively construct linguistic meaning through group-based tasks. Learners utilized various AI tools, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Papago, and Natural Readers, integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening in authentic project contexts. Throughout the process, students experienced new ways of organizing and expressing language as part of their task performance. Prompt literacy gradually developed as learners interacted with AI tools and learned to adjust and refine language expressions appropriate to their own proficiency levels. Lower-level learners, in particular, addressed linguistic constraints by engaging with multimodal AI features and combining visual, auditory, and textual resources to expand their participation opportunities. Continuous teacher feedback and level-based guidance supported learners’ confidence and self-directed inquiry. The findings indicate that AI-supported PBLL provides a pedagogical context in which learners co-construct meaning and actively participate within a traditional classroom setting. This study qualitatively illuminates how AI, teachers, and learners coexist in English education for college students, and how language learning experiences are meaningfully shaped through their interaction.