Artificial Intelligence as a Provider of Feedback on EFL Student Compositions

Abstract

In response to the arrival of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of ChatGPT, this study examines its potential for providing feedback to foreign language writers. This represents a more acceptable use of AI in the writing classroom, rather than students simply using AI to write their entire essay. The methodological procedure involved eliciting normal classroom writing-practice essays from 29 English major students at a Saudi university, with ChatGPT (2023) then given a simple prompt requesting feedback. Both the essays and the feedback were qualitatively analysed to respond to research questions concerning the feedback’s consistency and credibility, and the extent to which it represented the different potential feedback types, based on a review of the extensive literature on the subject. Although superficially impressive, close examination revealed certain weaknesses to the AI feedback. For example, there was inconsistency in how the feedback was handled across essays, and some statements were not fully accurate regarding the respective text. In focus, the feedback was primarily accuracy-oriented, while even-handed in attention to content, organisation, and lower-level language matters, providing both positive and negative comments. However, there was a paucity of message-oriented communicative and explicit affective feedback. Like many teachers, ChatGPT was selective in terms of the feedback provided, but the decisions of what to address did not seem altogether motivated by criteria that an expert human feedback provider would consider. The main conclusion is that while AI feedback on writing practice is useful, it does require human monitoring by a teacher.