Exploring students’ generative AI-assisted writing processes: Perceptions and experiences from native and nonnative English speakers

“To ensure the trustworthiness of the qualitative analysis, I also conducted a peer debriefing (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) on the codebook with an experienced qualitative researcher.”

“Phenomenology seeks to form a close and clear account of people’s perceptions and lived experiences as opposed to delivering a positivist conclusion of human encounters, as “pure experience is never accessible” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 33).”

“Furthermore, the study shows that rather than passively indulging themselves in the convenience of AI tools, a common concern among educators (Chan & Hu, 2023; Graham, 2023), the student writers attempted to seize new learning opportunities that emerged from AI technologies to promote their…”

“This qualitative study adopted a phenomenological research design, which focuses on understanding and interpreting a particular aspect of shared human experience (Moran, 2002; Smith, 1996).”

“Furthermore, the study shows that rather than passively indulging themselves in the convenience of AI tools, a common concern among educators (Chan & Hu, 2023; Graham, 2023), the student writers attempted to seize new learning opportunities that emerged from AI technologies to promote their…”

“The present study shows that such decision making process can play a pivotal role in cultivating students’ “AI literacy” (Ng et al., 2021) and promoting their responsible use of AI.”

“Hwang et al. (2020) and Southworth et al. (2023) argued that AI is likely to transform not only the learning environment, but also the learning process, and even what it means to learn.”

“Since the early 1980s until now, scholars have proposed various writing process models (e.g., Abdel Latif, 2021; Flower & Hayes, 1981; Hayes, 2012; Kellogg, 1996), yet they are still trying to form a complete understanding of composing processes.”

“After all, the participants in this study have already developed some proficiency and skills in academic writing, but holding learner agency (Ouyang & Jiao, 2021) can be more complex and challenging for younger learners.”

“Thus, pedagogical innovations, policy adjustments, new forms of writing assessments, and teacher education (Zhai, 2022) are needed to adapt to the potential impact of AI on desired student learning outcomes within specific writing curriculums.”

“Since the early 1980s until now, scholars have proposed various writing process models (e.g., Abdel Latif, 2021; Flower & Hayes, 1981; Hayes, 2012; Kellogg, 1996), yet they are still trying to form a complete understanding of composing processes.”

“Research suggests that adopting AI in literacy and language education has advantages such as supporting personalized learning experiences, providing differentiated and immediate feedback (Huang et al., 2022; Bahari, 2021), and reducing students’ cognitive barriers (Gayed et al., 2022).”

“This facilitates greater student ownership of their learning, enhancing their learner competence through self-direction, self-assessment, and self-reflection when interacting with AI tools (Barrot, 2023c; Fariani et al., 2023).”

“Specifically with regard to classroom-based research in L2 writing, Yan (2023) examined the use of ChatGPT through the design of a one-week L2 writing practicum at a Chinese university.”

“Barrot (2023a) and Su et al. (2023) both review ChatGPT’s benefits and challenges for writing, pointing out that ChatGPT can offer a wide range of context-specific writing assistance such as idea generation, outlining, content improvement, organization, editing, proofreading, and post-writing…”

“Hwang et al. (2020) and Southworth et al. (2023) argued that AI is likely to transform not only the learning environment, but also the learning process, and even what it means to learn.”

“This perspective focuses on the cognitive strategies employed in connecting and utilizing information to achieve the purpose of explaining the world (Klein et al., 2006).”

“Steiss et al. (2024) analyzed 400 feedback instances—half generated by human raters and half by ChatGPT—on the same essays.”

“One prominent application is automatic written evaluation (AWE), which comprises two main elements: a scoring engine producing automatic scores and a feedback engine delivering automated written corrective feedback (AWCF) (Koltovskaia, 2020).”

“Researchers also note challenges such as the varied level of technological readiness among teachers and students as well as concerns regarding accuracy, biases, accountability, transparency, and ethics (e.g., Kohnke et al., 2023; Memarian & Doleck, 2023; Ranalli, 2021).”

“The students’ beliefs align with a connectivism paradigm of AI in Education (AIEd) outlined by Ouy-ang and Jiao (2021), in which AI serves as a tool to augment human intelligence and capability (Yang et al., 2021) and learner agency is placed at the core.”

“Research suggests that adopting AI in literacy and language education has advantages such as supporting personalized learning experiences, providing differentiated and immediate feedback (Huang et al., 2022; Bahari, 2021), and reducing students’ cognitive barriers (Gayed et al., 2022).”

“Researchers also note challenges such as the varied level of technological readiness among teachers and students as well as concerns regarding accuracy, biases, accountability, transparency, and ethics (e.g., Kohnke et al., 2023; Memarian & Doleck, 2023; Ranalli, 2021).”

“Adopting NLP to analyze language features, diagnose errors, and evaluate essays, AWE was first implemented in high-stakes testing and later adopted in writing classrooms (Link et al., 2022).”

“For L2 students, writing can be very complex and cognitively daunting (Mohsen, 2021) due to reasons including but not limited to linguistic barriers (Johnson, 2017).”

“Although the students acknowledged the cognitive and affective benefits (e.g., Ebadi & Amini, 2022; Fryer & Carpenter, 2006) of using ChatGPT in writing, they were very cautious about adopting its ideas and suggestions at different discourse levels (i.e., essay, paragraph, and sentence levels) due…”

“Although the students acknowledged the cognitive and affective benefits (e.g., Ebadi & Amini, 2022; Fryer & Carpenter, 2006) of using ChatGPT in writing, they were very cautious about adopting its ideas and suggestions at different discourse levels (i.e., essay, paragraph, and sentence levels) due…”

“Research shows that ITS could enhance students’ vocabulary and grammar development, offer immediate sentence-and paragraph-level suggestions, and provide insights into students’ writing behaviors (Jeon, 2021; Pandarova et al., 2019).”

“Confirming previous research (e.g., Guo et al., 2022; Holmes et al., 2019; Su et al., 2023), this study found that the students overall had positive experiences with generative AI-assisted writing, for it could accelerate their writing process, reduce their cognitive load and anxiety, and provide…”

“Scholars also investigate chatbots as writing partners for scaffolding students’ argumentative writing (Guo et al., 2022; Lin & Chang, 2020) and incorporating Google’s neural machine translation system in second language (L2) writing (Cancino & Panes, 2021; Tsai, 2019).”

“Thus, writing should be investigated in consideration of its dynamic interplay with institutional, cultural, and technological factors (Atkinson, 2003).”

“Researchers also note challenges such as the varied level of technological readiness among teachers and students as well as concerns regarding accuracy, biases, accountability, transparency, and ethics (e.g., Kohnke et al., 2023; Memarian & Doleck, 2023; Ranalli, 2021).”

“This facilitates greater student ownership of their learning, enhancing their learner competence through self-direction, self-assessment, and self-reflection when interacting with AI tools (Barrot, 2023c; Fariani et al., 2023).”

“…writing instruction (Tan et al., 2024), L1 student writers’ perceptions of ChatGPT as writing partner and AI ethics in college composition classes (Vetter et al., 2024), and the collaborative experience of writing instructors and students in integrating generative AI into writing (Bedington et…”

“Similar to Tseng and Warschauer (2023), Barrot (2023a) is also concerned about students’ learning loss due to their use of generative AI in writing and their over-reliance on AI.”

“However, scholars have also raised concerns regarding its accuracy and its potential misrepresentation of the social nature of writing (Shi & Aryadoust, 2023).”

“…instruction (Tan et al., 2024), L1 student writers’ perceptions of ChatGPT as writing partner and AI ethics in college composition classes (Vetter et al., 2024), and the collaborative experience of writing instructors and students in integrating generative AI into writing (Bedington et al., 2024).”

“Thus the system can contribute to classroom instruction by reducing the burden on teachers and aiding students in writing, revision, and self-learning (Almusharraf & Alotaibi, 2023).”

“Scholars also investigate chatbots as writing partners for scaffolding students’ argumentative writing (Guo et al., 2022; Lin & Chang, 2020) and incorporating Google’s neural machine translation system in second language (L2) writing (Cancino & Panes, 2021; Tsai, 2019).”

“This facilitates greater student ownership of their learning, enhancing their learner competence through self-direction, self-assessment, and self-reflection when interacting with AI tools (Barrot, 2023c; Fariani et al., 2023).”

“While some are optimistic about the opportunities that generative AI brings to classrooms, various concerns arise especially in terms of academic dishonesty and the biases inherent in these AI tools (Glaser, 2023).”

“In another study by Han et al. (2023), the authors designed a platform that integrated ChatGPT to support L2 writers in improving writing quality in South Korea.”

“…assistance; the multimodal functionalities of generative AI can also allow writers to explore creative expressions and multimodal writing, enriching literacy practices by integrating more visual, auditory, and interactive elements into the composition process (Kang & Yi, 2023; Li et al., 2024).”

“Research shows that ITS could enhance students’ vocabulary and grammar development, offer immediate sentence-and paragraph-level suggestions, and provide insights into students’ writing behaviors (Jeon, 2021; Pandarova et al., 2019).”

“Researchers have long been studying the utilization of AI technologies to support writing and language learning (Schulze, 2008).”

“…further pursue what it means by authenticity and academic integrity in an increasingly AI-mediated educational context, ways to promote students’ authorial voice and agency, as well as the complicated authorship issues (Jabotinsky & Sarel, 2022) involved in AI-human collaboratively generated texts.”

“For instance, skilled writers refine and revise their ideas during writing, whereas novice writers mostly engage in sentence level changes such as fixing grammatical and lexical issues (e.g., Khuder & Harwood, 2015).”

“Since the early 1980s until now, scholars have proposed various writing process models (e.g., Abdel Latif, 2021; Flower & Hayes, 1981; Hayes, 2012; Kellogg, 1996), yet they are still trying to form a complete understanding of composing processes.”

“For L2 students, writing can be very complex and cognitively daunting (Mohsen, 2021) due to reasons including but not limited to linguistic barriers (Johnson, 2017).”

“…assistance; the multimodal functionalities of generative AI can also allow writers to explore creative expressions and multimodal writing, enriching literacy practices by integrating more visual, auditory, and interactive elements into the composition process (Kang & Yi, 2023; Li et al., 2024).”

“As Rings (2017) acknowledged, authenticity extends beyond adherent to personally endorsed commitments; it requires a comprehensive consideration of one’s self-awareness and the changing social context.”

“Poquet (2024) integrates these two theoretical orientations, proposing that sensemaking encompasses both the individual and the collective, drawing attention to how learners explain the cognitive aspects of their learning as well as the social and cultural factors shape their learning experiences.”

“As a resource provider, GenAI assisted language learners in enriching writing topics (Mahapatra, 2024), seeking additional information (Punar Özçelik & Ekşi, 2024), learning technical terms (Abdelhalim, 2024), and improving grammar or vocabulary (C. Wang 2024).”

“But they also noted differences between human and machine feedback and that the two were different in useful ways (Tzirides, Zapata, et al., 2023, 2024; Zapata et al., 2024).”

“For example, Wang (2024) found that students’ interactions with AI require a blend of knowledge, skills, and self-reflection to make informed decisions.”

“These worries align with the research conducted by Wang (2024) and Özçelik and Ekşi (2024) who observed comparable issues over striking a balance between utilizing AI tools and upholding academic integrity and individual learning growth.”

“…currently used in educational contexts include Gemini (Google), ChatGPT (OpenAI), and Claude (Anthropic), each offering interactive, text-based support for a wide range of learning activities, such as brainstorming, content summarization, grammar correction, and dialogue simulation (Wang, 2024).”

“High levels of affective engagement can lead to reduced anxiety and a more enjoyable learning experience, which are essential for effective language acquisition and writing improvement (Dai & Wang, 2024; Dewaele et al., 2018).”

“There have been explorations of learner perceptions of GenAI (Liu & Ma, 2024; Liu et al., 2024a; Wang, 2024), learner motivation (Liu & Reinders, 2024; Liu et al., 2024b), and teacher perspectives and readiness (Kaplan-Rakowski et al., 2023; Moorhouse, 2024).”

“…GenAI tools such as ChatGPT and Grammarly for technical language improvements, which corresponds with GenAI’s documented affordances in performing grammatical corrections and para-phrasing (Guo & Wang, 2024) as well as enhancing overall writing accuracy (Mahapatra, 2024; Mizumoto & Eguchi, 2023).”

“The few existing experimental studies rarely control for feedback timing or structural equivalence across conditions, preventing conclusive determinations about the causal impact of AI feedback on writing outcomes (Ban-ihashem et al., 2024; Song & Song, 2023; Wang, 2024).”

“Chatbots like ChatGPT can meet users’ emotional needs and engage in meaningful interactions, satisfying the need for a relationship with technology (Wang, 2024).”

“Such findings align with other studies, which highlight that some students are hesitant to utilize AI writing tools to improve their writing abilities, fearing that reliance on these tools might lose their original voice (Wang, 2024; Cummings et al. 2024).”

“C. Wang (2024) highlights that students leverage GenAI for various writing tasks, such as brainstorming, organizing ideas, and refining both global and local writing issues.”

“According to numerous sources, the advent of GenAI will revolutionize learning and teaching at all levels (Bearman and Luckin 2020; Bearman et al. 2022; Farrelly and Baker 2023; Wang 2024), with GenAI literacy becoming an essential element for all students to master (Southworth et al. 2023).”

“Hence, although cGenAI-assisted writing processes have come under increasing scrutiny for assessment in higher education (Wang, 2024), we see that a large majority of our surveyed staff indeed consider such a use case as requiring competence in AI.”

“Similar scenarios include programming education [82], [83] and collaborativewriting[84],[85],whereLLMscanmaximizetheir advantagesinknowledgeandskills.”

“Fourth, prior knowledge plays a crucial role in shaping how students formulate prompts and interpret AI responses (Alfugaha & Al-Smadi, 2025; Wang, 2024).”

“Wang’s study [35] acknowledged AI’s limitations in areas, such as originality and creativity, but also highlights its role in enhancing students’ critical thinking and writing skills.”

“Specifically, at the start, writers must reflect on whether their use of AI aligns with relevant policies and guidelines set by those who will review their work (Candilas et al., 2024; Wang, 2024a), in line with the Ethical Use principle.”

“These tools can potentially alleviate cognitive load and enhance L2 writers ’ con fi dence and grammatical accuracy (Wang 2024; Woo et al. 2024).”

“The increase in PU, in turn, directly facilitated students’ willingness to try GAI, ultimately driving an increase in their BI to use it (Yao & Wang, 2024; W. W. Zhang & Hou, 2024).”

“Wang ( 2024) also examined students’ use of ChatGPT during Eng - lish writing and found that university students perceived it as helpful for brainstorming, organizing ideas, and devel - oping initial drafts.”

“(Zhai, Wibowo and Li, 2024; Yang, Raković, Liang, Yan, Zeng, Fan, Gašević and Chen, 2025; Wang, 2025) A key determinant of these outcomes lies in the interaction design.”

“Effective integration of GenAI requires educators to move beyond passive allowance and proactively instruct students on how to engage with it as a learning scaffold instead of a tool of dependency (Wang, 2024; Zhu et al., 2024).”

“…(Imran & Almusharraf, 2023), mentors (Fidan & Gencel, 2022), conversational partners both in writing (El Shazly, 2021; Tai, 2024; Tai & Chen, 2024; Wang, 2024) and speaking (Fathi et al., 2024; Youn, 2023), evaluators (Cotton et al., 2023), feedback providers (Jeon & Lee, 2023), personal language…”

“Informed by previous research (e.g. Teng 2024), a questionnaire consisting of 22 multiple-choice questions and an open-ended question (see Table 2) was designed to investigate students’ perceptions and experiences of using GenAI feedback during revision.”

“Some AI technologies may improve students’ academic abilities to write better, their ways of teaching and learning, and create a unique student feedback mechanism (Wang, 2024; Maphoto et al., 2024; Wu, 2024a).”

“They advocate for critical discussions about AI, exemplifying TFL’s ‘designing for feedback dialogues’ (Buckingham Shum et al. 2023), and are opposed to banning GPT (S33), focusing instead on ethical engagement (Wang 2024).”

“Wang (2025) highlighted the dilemmas teachers must manage: supporting AI use for skill development while maintaining learning authenticity.”

“Studies reported that GenAI tools have been used in various fields (Hagerty & Rubinov, 2019), including in teaching and learning (Almasri, 2024; Law, 2024; Sumakul et al., 2022), especially in writing (Bahammam et al., 2023; Wang, 2024; Weidmann, 2024).”

“…alternative outlines, proposing argumentative structures, and modeling genre conventions, AI expands learners’ rhetorical options—particularly valuable for those lacking sufficient exposure to academic writing schemas (Deep and Chen, 2025; Kim et al., 2024; Reza et al., 2025; Wang, 2024).”

“This environment may inadvertently stifle creativity as it may promote conformity to individual teacher preferences rather than fostering unique student expressions (Wang, 2024).”

“In particular, students have used GenAI tools widely in academic writing tasks and have found them to be helpful in enhancing their writing motivation and con-fi dence (Guo and Li 2024; Meniado et al. 2024; Wang 2024).”

“Motivation and Creativity: Incorporating ChatGPT in academic writing stimulates creativity and helps improve language skills, particularly for non-native speakers [54].”

“Many researchers have confirmed the effectiveness of GenAI chatbots in second language writing practice [5] [6], however, most of these studies are based on the application of ChatGPT series.”

“Wang (2024) noted AI’s potential to produce culturally misaligned content, requiring cross-cultural optimization [18].”

“Although the study demonstrated the need for AI in ODL, misusing or abusing the technology might lead to devastating consequences [31].”

“Recent empirical work demonstrates that L2 learners actively edit AI-generated passages to preserve personal voice and linguistic identity, leveraging generative tools as metacognitive sca ff olds rather than wholesale replacements (Kim et al. 2024; Wang 2024).”

“(Wang and Wang, 2025, p. 14) In fact, the five dimensions should form an iterative cycle with overlapping among them.”

“Recent literature highlights the signi fi cant a ff ordances of GenAI, including support for linguistic development (Yan 2023), immediate feedback (Barrot 2023), and reduced cognitive load and anxiety (Wang 2024; Wang et al. 2025).”