| Sumario: | Background: AI‐empowered chatbot has been widely and longitudinally applied in second language (L2) education, but few of them were applied in first language (L1) education. Chinese ancient Quatrains, containing high‐density semantic information with minimalist word combinations, are the learning targets of the most advanced level of native language learning for Chinese pupils. Objectives: Designing and implementing AI‐empowered chatbots to explore the efficacy of their application in L1 Quatrains' learning for young Chinese pupils. Samples: Four hundred and thirty four second‐grade pupils from Qingtaishan Primary School participated in this training program, including 220 boys and 214 girls. Participants' average age was 8.2 years (SD = 0.47). Two hundred and eight of them were assigned to the experimental class while the remaining 226 pupils were assigned to the control group. Methods: A between‐participants design was applied to 434 second‐grade pupils from a primary school. AI‐empowered chatbots were designed and developed with agents and a knowledge base to implement the pedagogical instructional designs. An ANOVA comparison was conducted between learners with and without the intervention, measuring their behavioural outcomes. Five‐point Likert scales were used to collect learners' self‐perceptions about the training, and interviews were conducted with teachers. Structural Equation Models (SEMs) were built to explore how the chatbots affected learners' learning outcomes. Results: Results showed that learners' sentence comprehension ability was significantly enhanced compared to their peers without intervention, but their ability to extract keywords from the Quatrains showed no superiority to their peers. SEMs based on learners' self‐perceptions and their performance suggested that their positive attitude toward new technology had no causal relationship with their learning outcomes. Conclusions: We summarised the training's advantages and disadvantages based on a SWOT analysis; practitioner notes were made for policymakers, school leaders and L1 teachers seeking to integrate AI‐supported chatbots in their classrooms. Moreover, by using interaction, constructiveness, and activeness of the learning activity to evaluate the gains of applying AI‐empowered chatbots in L1 learning, drawbacks and limitations were further diagnosed to evolve instructional designs, which may lead to better application outcomes. Highlights: What is currently known about this topic? ○Research on the application of AI chatbots in first language (L1) education remains limited.○The insufficient pragmatic competence of LLMs is their major problem in an educational context.○Chinese ancient poetry is a high‐density semantic context, posing high challenges for young Chinese learners.What does this paper add? ○Pragmatic competence of the LLMs can be enhanced by using agents and knowledge databases.○Although multi‐modal resources and dynamic interactions provided by GenAI significantly enhance learner motivation and interest, no significant relationship with learning outcomes was observed.○GenAI‐empowered chatbots incorporating scaffolding design can effectively help learners understand Quatrains holistically.Implications for practice or policy ○Chatbots should be designed leveraging LLM agents and plugins, which help teachers embed instructional designs and provide multimodal learning resources adapted to learners' needs.○Chatbots should be based on knowledge databases to keep conversations within Grice's framework in educational settings.○Policymakers must invest in training that moves beyond basic tool usage to focus on pedagogical design with AI.
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