{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T16:03:44Z","timestamp":1791475424249,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,25]],"date-time":"2026-06-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782345600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010002","name":"Ministry of Education","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010002","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychol."],"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    Large language model (LLM)-powered agentic systems are increasingly deployed in higher education, yet their effects on learner autonomy and self-regulated learning (SRL) remain empirically underexamined. This 16-week quasi-experimental study evaluated a dual-role Agentic AI\u2014an AI Lecturer paired with an adaptive AI Teaching Assistant\u2014embedded in Uedu.tw, a university EFL platform in Taiwan, drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Participants were 120 Taiwanese B1 undergraduates (60 experimental, 60 control) assigned by intact class with a single instructor and identical curriculum. ANCOVA showed greater experimental-group gains in learner autonomy (partial \u03b7\n                    <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                    = 0.247), SRL strategies (partial \u03b7\n                    <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                    = 0.215), and intrinsic L2 motivation (partial \u03b7\n                    <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                    = 0.183), with no parallel effect on extrinsic goal orientation\u2014a dissociation consistent with SDT. Because the experimental condition combined AI access with a Socratic-dialogue task format, these effects index the AI-supported condition as a whole and cannot be attributed to the AI system in isolation. Learner-level analysis of 6,235 AI Teaching Assistant queries showed that 54 of 60 experimental learners (90.0%) shifted monotonically from answer-seeking toward metacognitive and elaboration-seeking queries, which we treat descriptively rather than as evidence of internalized self-regulation. Reflexive thematic analysis of 16 interviews yielded three illustrative themes. The findings inform agentic-AI design in Confucian-heritage EFL contexts and underscore the need to distinguish effects with agentic technology from effects of it; whether within-intervention gains persist after scaffolding is withdrawn remains open.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyg.2026.1847607","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,25]],"date-time":"2026-06-25T05:31:26Z","timestamp":1782365486000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Agentic AI as a dual-role lecturer and teaching assistant: effects on learner autonomy, self-regulated learning, and intrinsic motivation in university-level EFL education"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Kuei-Hao","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"International Intercollegiate Ph.D. Program, National Tsing Hua University","place":["Hsinchu, Taiwan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chia-Kai","family":"Chang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for General Education, National Central University","place":["Taoyuan City, Taiwan"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"277","DOI":"10.3102\/00346543073003277","article-title":"Help seeking and help design in interactive learning environments","volume":"73","author":"Aleven","year":"2003","journal-title":"Rev. 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