On the Plausibility of Integrating Synthetic vs. Analytic Artificial Intelligence (AI)-Powered Academic Writing Tasks into Iranian EFL Classrooms: State-of-the-Art

Abstract

Concerning the rapid permeating trend of technologies into education realm, teachers and stake holders are to make the most of new approaches and lead EFL learners in the right path to have the best uptake possible from the teaching/learning innovations. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) has accelerated such rapid growth to a considerable large extent. The present study aimed to delve into the permeating AI-integrated applications into Iranian EFL teaching/learning realm to ascertain the enrichment of academic writing ability and skill acquisition. Needless to indicate that these AI-tools are considered as boosters for the amateur writers and the advance professional writers rarely do they need them. To conduct the study, an Oxford English language proficiency test was administered and three groups of 20 intermediate Iranian EFL undergraduates majoring at English translation discipline were selected and randomly assigned. They got prepared to attend a course of writing five-paragraph essay. The conventional method was practiced for the control group and other two experimental groups experienced the Synthetic and the Analytic AI tools. The design of this study was quantitative quasi-experimental pre-test post-test. The pre- and post-test was an academic writing task. Surprisingly, the experimental Synthetic AI outperformed Analytic AI group, and the experimental ones scores were higher and statistically significant than control group. It confirmed that applying AI tools in skill acquisition could significantly enhance the enrichment of obtaining boosted knowledge process and competence. The results obtained through this study might be useful and practicable for EFL teachers, materials developers and stake holders.

Keywords

• synthetic
• analytic
• artificial intelligence (ai)
• academic writing