Tertiary English Education in the
GenAI
Era: Chinese English Majors' Cognitive Appraisals, Employment Anxiety, and Informal Digital Learning
Yun Jiang, Qingping Li ABSTRACT
The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has intensified employment anxiety among Chinese English majors, posing new challenges for foreign language education and career development. However, how their cognitive appraisals of GenAI shape engagement in GenAI‐mediated informal digital learning of English (GenAI‐IDLE) remains underexplored. Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory and the challenge‐hindrance stressor framework, this study examined the mediating role of four‐dimensional future employment anxiety (personal ability, knowledge application, career replaceability, social relations) in the relationship between challenge/hindrance appraisals and GenAI‐IDLE. A valid sample of 526 Chinese English majors completed an online questionnaire, and data were analysed using PLS‐SEM. Both challenge and hindrance appraisals were directly positively associated with GenAI‐IDLE. Challenge appraisal was indirectly associated with GenAI‐IDLE through reduced career replaceability anxiety. Hindrance appraisal was positively associated with all four anxiety dimensions, but only two indirect pathways were significant: negative through career replaceability anxiety and positive through personal ability anxiety. Knowledge application and social relations anxiety did not mediate significantly. These findings reveal that the cognitive appraisal‐future employment anxiety‐GenAI‐IDLE behaviour chain operates through differentiated, anxiety‐specific pathways. The results offer pedagogical implications for foreign language education, including curriculum design that reframes GenAI as an augmentative tool, integration of digital resilience training, and development of career‐oriented interventions to mitigate maladaptive employment anxiety while fostering self‐directed informal learning among English majors.