Students' Foreign Language Learning Adaptability and Mental Health Supported by Artificial Intelligence.
AI can boost college language learning, but anxiety or depression can wipe out the gain.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lin (2024) asked Chinese college foreign-language majors about AI tools.
The survey checked how well students adapted to AI-supported lessons.
It also asked about anxiety and depression levels.
What they found
Students who felt comfortable with AI learned more.
Yet those same students often scored high on anxiety or depression.
Poor mental health dragged down their grades despite the tech help.
How this fits with other research
Jackson et al. (2025) saw the opposite pattern in Saudi students with disabilities.
More assistive-tech use linked to higher grades, but many students still skipped the tools.
The difference: Lin counted mental-health barriers while A et al. did not.
Ben-Yehudah et al. (2019) adds a warning: college students with ADHD understood less when text moved from paper to screen.
Lin’s neurotypical sample liked digital AI; Gal’s ADHD sample did not.
Same medium, different learners — diagnosis matters.
Tarifa-Rodriguez et al. (2025) showed tech can win big when paired with behavioral prompts.
Their Facebook-based program lifted postgraduate marks by about 20 points.
Together the four studies say: tech helps only when you also handle learner traits and mental health.
Why it matters
Before you add an AI app to a client’s plan, screen for anxiety and depression.
A short check-in or a referral can save hours of wasted tech time.
Match the tool to the learner: digital text may hurt students with ADHD, while AI chat tutors can aid neurotypical language learners if mood is stable.
Build in self-monitoring or peer prompts like Tarifa-Rodriguez did to keep gains strong.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The rapid development of social reform and the economy has brought great challenges to the mental health of college students. However, there are few studies on the impact of these psychological problems on college students' English learning. As a special group about to enter society, studying the mental health of college students in foreign language learning is of great significance. This paper discusses the principle of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology and the interactive mechanism to support college students' foreign language learning. Additionally, the adaptability supporting college students' foreign language learning is analyzed according to the current situation of AI supporting foreign language learning. Then, the mental health of college students in the AI environment is investigated and analyzed. This paper takes foreign and non-foreign language majors of Changchun University of Technology as the object and uses questionnaires, interviews, and classroom observation to obtain basic data. The results show that college students' adaptability to foreign language learning is higher than that of non-foreign. Students' intelligent operation and knowledge storage level impact their adaptability to foreign language learning. Psychological health problems include learning anxiety, loneliness, depression, and inferiority in college students' foreign language learning. These negative emotions, to a certain extent, affect the learning effect of college students' foreign language learning. This paper is of great significance to the adaptability of college students' foreign language learning to the intelligent environment and the analysis of their mental health problems. This paper hopes to provide data reference for the research on improving college students' foreign language learning effects.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2024 · doi:10.1186/s41239-019-0171-0