Leveraging Generative AI to Support Cognitive Skills in the EFL Writing Process: University Students’ Reported Uses by Ekaterina Talalakina and Peter Launonen

Abstract

The spread of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has restated the importance of the writing-as-a-process concept in EFL instruction, showing that this new technology can be very helpful in complementing the efforts of human EFL writers. At the same time, there is a clear lack of research exploring the way GenAI supports specific cognitive skills involved at each stage of writing within an EFL course specifically structured to emphasize the process approach. The present study aims to fill this gap by examining undergraduate students’ perceptions of GenAI’s usefulness during the writing process throughout such an EFL course. A mixed-methods approach was employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data through surveys and semi-structured interviews. The results shed light on specific stages of the writing process and corresponding cognitive skills that students are most likely to complement with GenAI. Findings show that in spite of numerous concerns over GenAI’s capacity to replace a human writer, in EFL writing instruction GenAI assumes the role of a co-creator leading to a synergetic relationship at various stages of the writing process. The findings have important pedagogical implications for understanding the role of GenAI in EFL writing in a process-oriented course. Writing-as-aprocess pedagogical design allows EFL students to successfully determine the role and place of GenAI in their writing ecosystem, which in the end is aimed at achieving the ultimate goal of learning how to write in English.