This study examines the factors that may impact the adoption of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) tools for students’ assessment in tertiary education from the perspective of early-adopter instructors in the Middle East. It utilized a self-administered online survey and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) model to collect data from 358 faculty members from different countries in the Middle East. The Smart PLS software 4 was used to analyze the data. The findings of this study revealed that educators developed new strategies to integrate Gen AI into assessment and used a systematic approach to develop assignments. Moreover, the study demonstrated the importance of developing institutional policies for the integration of Gen AI in education, as a driver factor influencing the use of Gen AI in assessments. Additionally, the research identified significant factors, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, and hedonic motivation, shaping educators’ behavioral intentions and actual use of Gen AI tools to assess students’ performance. The findings reveal both the potential advantages of Gen AI, namely enhanced student engagement and reduced instructor workloads, and challenges, including concerns over academic integrity and the possible negative impact on students’ writing and thinking skills. This study emphasizes the significance of targeted professional development and ethical criteria for the proper integration of Gen AI in educational assessment.

The complex relationships between emotions experienced by learners and learners’ personality traits, such as grit, that influence students’ willingness to communicate in a second language (L2 WTC) have come under increasing attention. To date, investigators have focused primarily on WTC and the role of emotions in traditional face-to-face settings rather than in blended learning environments. To expand this research, we examined whether grit, foreign language enjoyment (FLE), and foreign language boredom (FLB) among university-level EFL students would be predictive of L2 WTC in a hybrid online and face-to-face learning setting. We studied 345 participants (252 females and 93 males) enrolled in English courses in a blended learning environment from three public universities in Saudi Arabia. We utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to test a model that combined grit with two emotions (enjoyment and boredom) and L2 WTC. Our results revealed that FLB had the largest relationship to students’ L2 WTC followed by FLE and grit, respectively. In this paper, we discuss these results and present some pedagogical implications of these data for teachers and learners of English as a foreign language (EFL).

There has been a growing interest in investigating the intricate connections between different emotions and personality dimensions, such as grit, that affect second language (L2) learners’ willingness to communicate (WTC) in English. This cross-cultural study aims to contribute to this line of research by investigating whether or not grit and foreign language enjoyment (FLE) are predictors of L2 WTC among Saudi and Moroccan college-level English as a foreign language (EFL) students. The study included 446 participants from Saudi Arabia (n = 228) and Morocco (n = 218). A questionnaire administered online was utilised to collect data. According to the findings of structural equation modelling (SEM), grit and FLE were significant predictors of L2 WTC in Saudi and Moroccan students. In addition, while grit had a stronger significant predictor of L2 WTC among Moroccan students, FLE was a stronger significant predictor of L2 WTC among Saudi students than grit. Pedagogical implications are discussed based on the study findings, as are the implications of the different contextual influences and levels of multilingualism.