172 Students at a Japanese National University Rated Self-Access Language Learning Services Above AI Chatbots for Speaking, Motivation, and Personalized Guidance, Seeing the Two as Complementary
Surveying 172 students at a Japanese national university and analyzing responses with descriptive statistics, paired-samples t-tests, and content analysis, the study compared learners' perceptions of the usefulness, limitations, and future roles of self-access language learning (SALL) services and AI chatbots for English learning, finding that SALL services were rated significantly higher for speaking development, motivation, personalized advice and feedback, writing, and overall contribution, while chatbots were valued for convenience and accessibility, and that learners saw the two as complementary rather than competing resources.