Digital Agents of Alienation: How AI Tools Reshape 
Strategic English Learning in Chinese Higher Education

Xiaohui Zheng

doi:10.70711/neet.v4i3.8973

Digital Agents of Alienation: How AI Tools Reshape Strategic English Learning in Chinese Higher Education

Xiaohui Zheng

Abstract

With the rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools into higher education, this study focuses on the dual impacts of
AI tools on Strategic English Learning (SEL) in Chinese higher education, emphasizing the theoretical analysis of the "digital alienation"
generation mechanism. Framed by Marx's alienation theory, technological affordance theory, self-regulation theory, and achievement
goal theory, it integrates key international and localized empirical evidence to reveal that while AI enhances learning efficiency, it may
act as a digital alienation agent, triggering cognitive dependence, emotional disengagement, and loss of autonomous ability. The study
enriches the theoretical system of AI-assisted language education and provides practical guidance for optimizing AI application in English education.

Keywords

Digital Alienation; AI Tools; Strategic English Learning; Chinese Higher Education

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/neet.v4i3.8973

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