NAVIGATING THE AI FRONTIER: EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF GENERATIVE AI FEEDBACK ON EFL STUDENTS' ACADEMIC WRITING PROFICIENCY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47178/50zmhx44Keywords:
Generative AI, EFL academic writing, Academic writing proficiency, Digital scaffolding, AI-assisted feedbackAbstract
Academic writing remains a major challenge for students in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts because it requires not only linguistic accuracy but also rhetorical organization, coherence, and critical argumentation. Although teacher feedback is central to writing instruction, its effectiveness is often constrained by limited time, heavy workload, and the difficulty of providing individualized and timely responses. In this context, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has emerged as a potential form of digital scaffolding that can offer immediate, adaptive, and interactive feedback during the writing process. This study evaluated the impact of GenAI-assisted feedback on EFL students' academic writing proficiency compared with conventional peer and teacher feedback. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study involved 60 Indonesian university students assigned to an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group received GenAI-assisted feedback, whereas the control group received traditional feedback. Data were collected through pre- and post-tests and a student perception questionnaire. The results of an independent-samples t-test showed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group (p < 0.001), with a large effect size (Cohen's d = 1.98). The most substantial improvements were found in grammatical accuracy, lexical resource, and rhetorical cohesion. However, qualitative findings also indicated that a small number of students became overly dependent on AI-generated suggestions. These findings suggest that GenAI can serve as an effective pedagogical support tool for enhancing academic writing proficiency, learner autonomy, and revision practices.
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