Enhancing Sustainable English Writing Instruction Through a Generative AI-Based Virtual Teacher Within a Co-Regulated Learning Framework

Yongkang Yang, Lingyun Huang, Weiyi Lin, Yilin Li, Yaopeng Xu and Liying Cheng ()
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Yongkang Yang: School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau SAR, China
Lingyun Huang: Department of Curriculum and Instruction, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
Weiyi Lin: School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, Ireland
Yilin Li: School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin, D02 PN40 Dublin, Ireland
Yaopeng Xu: School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau SAR, China
Liying Cheng: School of Education, City University of Macau, Macau SAR, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-17

Abstract: English writing proficiency is pivotal to sustainable academic success and employability. In Chinese higher education, however, conventional instruction often constrains students’ self-regulation and access to individualized feedback. Drawing on self-regulated learning (SRL) and co-regulated learning (CoRL), this study investigates whether a CoRL-guided generative AI virtual teacher (CoRL-VT), designed as a “more capable other,” is associated with enhanced undergraduate writing outcomes relative to standard AI support. Using a 12-week quasi-experimental design with two intact classes ( N = 61) in Anhui, China, we compared a control condition (standard AI) with an intervention (CoRL-VT). Writing proficiency was assessed via IELTS Writing Task 2 at pre- and post-test; three certified examiners scored all scripts with strong agreement (ICC = 0.87). Analyses adjusting for baseline yielded an estimated group difference favoring CoRL-VT. Teacher interview testimony aligned with the quantitative pattern, noting clearer macro-organization, richer lexical choices, and more teacherly formative feedback among CoRL-VT students. Taken together, these findings offer exploratory, descriptive evidence consistent with the potential of structured, CoRL-informed AI scaffolding in sustainable writing pedagogy and outline design principles for replicable CoRL-VT implementations in resource-conscious contexts.

Keywords: co-regulated learning; self-regulated learning; generative AI; virtual teacher; English academic writing; technology-enhanced sustainable pedagogy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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