EAP teacher feedback in the age of AI: Supporting first-year students in EFL disciplinary writing

Abstract

Academic writing is a substantial component of tertiary education, yet it poses challenges for second/foreign language (L2/FL) students, particularly those first-year undergraduates with limited exposure to English-medium-instruction (EMI) settings. In this context, English-for-academic-purposes (EAP) tutors play a crucial role in supporting these students, but little is known about the nature of their feedback in scholarly discourse. Complicating matters further is the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) as a feedback tool, sparking ongoing debate about its efficacy compared to traditional human feedback. To address these gaps, this study investigates the nature of EAP teacher feedback on English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) disciplinary writing, juxtaposing it against student opinions and attitudes towards both EAP teacher feedback and AI-generated feedback. This study employed a three-layer coding scheme focusing on corrective, genre-specific, and intentional feedback to analyse the nature of EAP teacher feedback in detail. Through a comprehensive analysis of interview themes, this study highlights the significance of EAP teacher feedback in the context of increasing integration of GenAI tools. The findings offer valuable insights into effective practices for supporting first-year EFL undergraduate students in their academic writing within EMI settings and demonstrate the critical role of EAP teacher feedback in assisting these students’ writing in an AI-prevalent world.

Keywords

• teacher feedback
• EAP teachers
• EFL students
• disciplinary writing
• GenAI feedback
• students’ perceptions