EFL Learners' Views About the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Giving Corrective Feedback on Writing: A Case Study

Introduction

Transforming lifestyles, technological advances have led to changes in core systems of society. Thus, specific to changes reflecting in the educational system, computers and mobile tools have been integrated to support learning and/or teaching of any school subject. Thus, benefitting from becoming partially or totally online, new teaching approaches and methods such as blended learning and flipped classroom have brought about. Furthermore, bulk of digital tools and mobile applications have become part of educational programs particularly to help students conduct independent out-of-class studies. Consequently, in accordance with recent developments highlighting the beginning of a new digital era, artificial intelligence (AI) has been promoted in teaching, and ChatGPT, “a chatbot with a conversational artificial intelligence interface that was developed by OpenAI” (Tlili et al., 2023, p. 1) has currently been one of the trendiest AI tools. Since it has been a very popular AI chatbot, also considered as revolutionary, empirical research has started to provide evidence of how it is used or could be used for varied educational purposes (Lancaster, 2023). Concerning language learning and teaching, it is possible for autonomous learners to conduct self-regulated language studies by using ChatGPT to improve their vocabulary knowledge, study grammar or to practice conversational patterns (Fryer et al., 2020; Kohnke et al., 2023). As for writing practice, this chatbot could be used to generate written texts, which undoubtedly raise ethical concerns. As an acceptable use, it could be used to get feedback for written products, and it is the focus of the study presented in this chapter.

In language learning, writing is considered as the most complex language skill due to cognitive processes and social interaction involved (Ghonsooly & Shalchy, 2013). With this regard, writers activate working memory by generating and organizing ideas, monitoring while writing and evaluating the written work. Additionally, within the scope of second language (L2) learning, written corrective feedback (WCF) defined as “error correction on L2 student writing” (Bitchener, 2008, p. 102) is provided by the teacher in traditional writing classes in which L2 learners could ask the teacher for corrective feedback or give peer feedback, which contributes to constitute social dimensions of writing. Furthermore, engaging in corrective feedback includes cognitive aspects as L2 writers try to grasp what is wrong and why in their papers, and they figure out how to fix it. WCF is provided in various forms while their effects and the extent of which they are preferred by learners differ. For instance, direct/indirect corrective feedback (indicating existence of an error by underlying), metalinguistic corrective feedback (use of error code to indicate an error) are two forms that could be used to give corrective feedback on writing (Ellis, 2009), and as for students’ preferences for corrective feedback on writing, there is a tendency towards benefitting from different types of feedback basically direct corrective feedback and indicating codes (Chen et al., 2016; Saragih et al., 2021). Keeping pace with developments, WCF has included technology-integrated types such as electronic feedback in which teachers correct errors and provide links guiding students for examples of correct use of those errors (Ellis, 2009). Similarly, video feedback and screen-casting in which teachers correct students’ papers on the screen and make explanations about the errors through videorecording (Demirel & Aksu, 2019) are new and digital-oriented types of WCF. In line with the most recent development in the digital world, it is inevitable that AI-driven types of WCF are emerging. To this end, ChatGPT is proposed to be used for giving corrective feedback on writing by teachers (Özçelik & Gündüz, 2023). On the other hand, the problem related to the integration of any AI tools into language learning has been reported to be the lack of social and humanistic aspects (Kushmar et al., 2022), which are considered essential aspects of writing classes (Mitchell et al. 2019). Thus, the chapter aims to provide more insight into an emerging research area. For this purpose, it proposes to address background issues with a brief introduction to artificial intelligence in language learning and teaching, benefits and drawbacks regarding the use of ChatGPT for the writing skill, and how EFL learners consider ChatGPT use for WCF.