Evaluating English Undergraduate Students’ Academic Writing Literacy in Connection with ChatGPT AI Tool: A Pre-, and Post-Assessment Study

Abstract

This study investigates the academic writing proficiency of undergraduate English students (Literature major), at the Faculty of Letters and Human Sciences in Oujda, and examines the effect of AI tools, particularly ChatGPT, on their performance. A Pre/Post-Test was administered to those students, with a training session conducted between the tests. The findings indicate that while ChatGPT can positively influence academic writing, its impact is significantly less substantial compared to the training program. The training, with or without ChatGPT, demonstrates long-term benefits, whereas ChatGPT alone showed limited significance. This research demonstrates the critical need for an academic writing training in MA and PhD programs, since it is the ultimate goal of the participants in this research. The study's limitations include the restricted evolution of participants' academic writing skills due to the single training session, which only provided core information and a basic framework for academic writing.