Artificial intelligence tools for the development of writing skills in English language learning

Resumo

This research analyzes English teachers’ perceptions of the use of artificial intelligence tools as pedagogical support for developing writing skills. It also examines the changes observed in the written production of A2 English as a Foreign Language students after using ChatGPT and Grammarly. The study involved 19 first-semester students from the Pedagogy of National and Foreign Languages career and five English teachers. A mixed-methods approach with a pre-experimental and descriptive design was used. The students completed an initial writing activity without technological tools and a succeeding activity with the support of ChatGPT and Grammarly. A structured survey was also administered to the teachers. The survey data collected were organized and analyzed using descriptive statistics with IBM SPSS Statistics, while the students’ written productions were examined manually through linguistic corpus analysis. The results showed that teachers held predominantly positive perceptions of the use of these tools. In addition, the comparison of the texts revealed improvements in spelling, grammar, verb tense use, articles, prepositions, sentence structure, clarity, and the organization of ideas. The study concludes that ChatGPT and Grammarly can support the writing revision process when they are used responsibly and under teacher guidance.