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).”

“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…”

“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.”

“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).”

“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).”

“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…”

“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).”

“…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…”

“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).”

“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).”

“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).”

“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).”

“…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).”

“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.”

“…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).”

“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).”

“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 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.”

“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).”