Abstract Summary/Description
This empirical study responds to student engagement with GAI in L2 writing, because the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) technologies for everyday users has drawn widespread attention, particularly for these technologies’ potential to transform the processes and products of writing (e.g., Yan, 2023). In pedagogical contexts, instructors and scholars have raised concerns surrounding potential ethical issues in using GAI in writing for academic purposes (Barrot, 2023). However, less is known about students' perspectives, including international and L2 students, who have the most to lose if GAI technologies are misused or misunderstood in teaching and learning. To respond to this gap, the present study takes up Sociocultural Theories of learning to examine multilingual university students’ perceptions of ChatGPT as a scaffold for writing academic essays. Participants were 11 international students enrolled in a developmental composition course for undergraduate L2 writers at a mid-sized U.S. university in the Midwest, and whose exam scores upon enrollment indicated they needed additional writing instruction before enrolling in the university’s introductory composition course. Via a classroom intervention utilizing ChatGPT, a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and student writing samples, the researcher sheds light on the ways students’ perceptions of using ChatGPT for academic writing remained static, shifted, or other as they were taught various strategies for integrating AI into their writing processes. The researcher discusses the study’s findings and provides implications for further research.
