The Importance of Artificial Intelligence Writing Tools in Enhancing English Writing of EFL Students

Résumé

This study focuses on the role of AI writing tools in promoting EFL students’ writing from students’ perspectives. The aims are to explore students’ perceptions of the different AI writing tools and to evaluate the impact of AI writing applications on students’ progress in writing. Mixed method approach is employed and 50 Libyan EFL students are chosen purposively from two faculties. Questionnaire and semi-structured interview are used to generate data. The findings indicate that Chat-GPT is the most common tool that is used by students to get prompt feedback. The results also reveal that Copilot tool plays a significant role in supporting students’ writing in terms of generating ideas and offering suggestions. Furthermore, it has been found that QuillBot is another AI writing application that helps students to summarize long texts and to paraphrase. In addition, the findings show that Grammarly assists students to check plagiarism, whereas Hemingway helps students to ensure readability and clarity of the content. Moreover, students’ responses indicate that Worldtune is the least writing tool that is used to improve sentence structure and coherence. However, the findings show that few students have fear of using AI writing tools because they believe that AI writing applications may adversely affect their ability to think creatively and critically. Moreover, the results indicate that over-reliance on AI writing tools can inhabit ideas generation. By investigating the use of AI writing tools, educators and policymakers can raise awareness of the benefits of using AI writing applications to promote students’ writing skills and performance