1 Introduction

Discussed the requirements for higher education teachers' ability to apply artificial intelligence in the context of global AI education policies, especially the impact on Chinese university English teachers. Emphasis was placed on the requirements of the "Guidelines for College English Teaching" for technological innovation and the challenges posed by Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) in teaching. There is a lack of research exploring the interactive relationship between teachers and GAI from the perspective of teacher agency. Introducing the emotional experience perspective from social and cultural theory, this study uses the Q method to investigate the differences in GAI usage initiative between novice and experienced college English teachers. Emotional experience is a unity of cognition, emotion, and behavior, which is consistent with the use of agency connotation in GAI. The research aims to reveal the three-dimensional interactive representation and collaborative/conflict motives of teacher agency, provide a basis for the professional development of college English teachers, and promote the transformation of GAI empowered education into an educational ecosystem.

2 Literature Review

Through searching and screening relevant literature using CiteSpace software, it was found that there are relatively few empirical studies. Existing research has explored the interactive relationship between foreign language teachers and GAI from multiple dimensions, including theoretical perspectives, research content, research groups, and research methods. The research mainly focuses on the impact of GAI on language skills teaching, GAI assisted teaching practices, and teacher competency development. The research group tends to focus on pre service teachers and novice teachers, while neglecting experienced teachers. Qualitative research dominates, and mixed research methods are gradually emerging. Existing research has preliminarily outlined the interaction between GAI and teacher practice within the framework of socio-cultural theory, but has not fully revealed the deep manifestations of teacher GAI agency. Qualitative research is difficult to systematically reveal the interactive contradictions between cognition, emotion, and behavior; Mixed research methods rarely combine cognitive and emotional exploration of agency. The concept of emotional experience in socio-cultural theory can provide a theoretical framework for the collaborative analysis of cognition, emotion, and behavior. The Q method can effectively capture the representation of agency in teacher GAI interaction, reveal the development trajectory of teacher agency in GAI context from the perspective of emotional experience, and make up for the lack of analysis of multidimensional collaborative mechanisms of agency in existing research.

3 Research Design

Introduced the design of a Q-method research, including the research object, method, data collection, and analysis process. The research subjects are 34 college English teachers from universities in Lingnan region, divided into two groups: novice and experienced. The study adopts the Q method and combines the advantages of qualitative and quantitative research to explore multiple perspectives on teacher agency. Data collection includes constructing a Q forum, Q set, questionnaire preparation, subjective ranking, P set selection, and post interview. The data analysis uses KADE software to extract factors and simplify the structure using the maximum variance rotation method, ensuring that the eigenvalues are ≥ 1.0 and the cumulative explained variance is between 50% -60%.

4 Research Results and Discussion

The research results and discussion section first conducted factor analysis on the Q-rank data of novice and experienced teachers, and found that both groups extracted four factors, with a total cumulative interpretable variance of 56% and 51%, respectively. The eigenvalues were all greater than 1.0, indicating the reliability of the questionnaire validity. By analyzing the positive and negative extreme value statements, specific representations of teachers' initiative in using GAI in college English classrooms across cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions were identified for different factor groups. Novice teachers are divided into four categories: contradiction explorers, critical pragmatists, conservative traditionalists, and confident innovators, while experienced teachers are divided into four categories: contradiction balancers, efficiency drivers, innovative explorers, and functional focal points. These classifications reflect the different attitudes and behavioral patterns of teachers in technology adoption, teaching practice, and emotional experience.

5 Discussions

Explored the multidimensional interactive mechanism of college English teachers' active use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) from the perspective of emotional experience. The key contradictions and focal points include technological barriers, ethical controversies, and role restructuring pressures, which disrupt the balance of teaching and activate the dynamic psychological process of emotional experience development. The development of agency involves the interaction of three dimensions: cognition, emotion, and behavior. Among them, emotional experience serves as an integration hub, transforming cognitive assessment into emotional motivation, which in turn drives behavioral choices. Suggestions have been put forward for the professional development of GAI for college English teachers, including focusing on diagnosing development bottlenecks, constructing a three-dimensional dynamic development path, and promoting ecological transformation. Based on the above findings, a "Cognitive Emotional Behavioral Interactive Dynamic Development Model of Teacher Initiative Driven by Contradictory Focus" has been constructed. The core logic is that GAI triggers a three-dimensional integrated interaction of cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions, and the development of initiative is a balance between contradiction resolution and practical creativity, ultimately improving teaching quality. This model provides an analytical framework for understanding teachers' initiative in technology integration, and can serve as a diagnostic, intervention, and evaluation dimension, providing useful insights for related research.

6 Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the research on the agency of college English teachers using generative artificial intelligence from the perspective of emotional experience. Research has found that the perspective of emotional experience helps to reveal the conflicting focal points, three-dimensional interactive mechanisms, and dynamic generative characteristics of teacher agency. Emotional experience, as a dimension for evaluating agency, has effectiveness and rationality, providing new ideas for related research. There are limitations to the research, such as insufficient sample size and lack of long-term follow-up studies. Future research can further supplement and demonstrate.