Undergraduate ESL students' use and perceptions of ChatGPT for academic writing purposes

Abstract

While research on ChatGPT’s role in instruction has witnessed rapid growth in recent years, fewer studies have paid attention to exploring undergraduate students’ perceptions of ChatGPT in English as a Second Language (ESL) academic writing contexts. To address this gap, the current study aimed to survey undergraduate ESL students’ use of ChatGPT for academic writing and their perceptions of its trustworthiness and utility. An intact class enrolled in an intensive academic writing course at a public science and engineering institute in India participated in the survey. Employing Likert-scale and multiple-choice questions, along with an open-ended item, the study collected data from 51 (13 female and 38 male) respondents and analysed it using descriptive statistics to identify trends and patterns in participants’ responses. Most respondents reported that they regularly used ChatGPT to generate and review academic texts. They appeared to express caution regarding the trustworthiness of its responses to academic writing queries and acknowledged its mechanised accuracy in summarising and correcting grammar and vocabulary mistakes. Though their confidence levels in using ChatGPT were moderate, most of them expressed willingness to use it more frequently for academic writing in the future. The findings indicate undergraduate ESL students’ increasing reliance on ChatGPT and their perceptions of its strengths and limitations as a supportive academic writing tool, implying the need for guidance in its effective and ethical use.