Communicative Readiness as Prepared Participation: Evidence from an AI-Assisted TMTBLT Course in Pakistani Higher Education

Abstract

In Pakistan, students often study English as a subject throughout school and college and pass the required examinations, yet many enter university feeling underprepared for English-mediated academic and professional communication. This article examines that gap through the concept of communicative readiness as prepared participation. Communicative readiness refers to learners’ perceived ability to use available linguistic, social, technological, and affective support to enter meaningful communication with purpose and ownership. The study draws on a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design in an AI-assisted Technology-Mediated Task-Based Language Teaching course. It used paired Communicative Readiness in AI-Assisted TMTBLT (CRAIT) survey responses to identify students’ self-reported readiness-related patterns, and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of student interviews to examine how selected participants made sense of those broad patterns. The findings indicated more favourable post-course perceptions of overall readiness, speaking confidence, AI-supported preparation, collaborative participation, anxiety management, and academic/professional readiness. The interview accounts showed that this movement was gradual, uneven, and dependent on the conditions surrounding participation. AI helped students prepare ideas, rehearse language, and revise responses, but its value depended on whether learners could adapt and personally own the support they received. The article argues that communicative readiness is not demonstrated by polished AI-supported output alone. It develops when learners can convert available support into responsible, purposeful, and personally owned communicative action.