Companion AI as a Practice Ecology: Identity Rehearsal, Affective Affordances and Emerging AI Literacies among Algerian Students of English as a Foreign Language

This study investigates how Master 2 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students in Algeria use the Replika app as an informal space to practice English and to experiment with second-language identities. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), we collected semi-structured interviews, weekly digital journals, and stimulated-recall accounts from forty-five Master 2 students recruited through purposive criterion-based sampling. Analysis identified four descriptive patterns: practice in a judgment-free environment; deliberate rehearsal of L2 selves; pragmatic experimentation often interrupted by mechanical or contextually inappropriate agent replies; and sequences of practice–reflection–application with uneven transfer to evaluative classroom settings. Participants reported that companion AI affords availability and repetition that support rehearsal of formulations and registers, and they described emergent digital literacies such as verification, reformulation and archiving of useful turns. However, sociopragmatic limitations and conversational incoherence in the agent constrained automatic generalization to face-to-face interaction. We advance a practice-ecology framing and propose a concise pedagogical pathway—Rehearsal → Reflection → Bridging → Classroom Transfer—to guide instructional design. These findings offer contextualized guidance for teachers, curriculum designers and policymakers aiming to integrate companion AI responsibly into language education.