Abstract

Technology has emerged as a vital component of the dynamic realm of language education pedagogy, providing distinctive resources that facilitate the acquisition of a second language. This research seeks to fill the gap in knowledge about the effectiveness and perceived impact of specific AI tools on ESL students’ writing proficiency. It also explores students’ opportunities and challenges while engaging with these tools. A mixed methodology approach has been utilized. Data was collected from the ESL students of one of the Saudi Arabian universities. The quantitative data collected from 130 students showed that AI formative feed tools, including ChatGPT, Grammarly, and QuillBot, have a significant positive impact on ESL writing proficiency since their significance values are below 0.05, which are 0.04, 0.000, and 0.000, respectively. A focus group interview of six students was conducted for the qualitative analysis. The focus group participants discussed the challenges and opportunities of using AI formative feedback tools. The opportunities included personalized feedback, language skill development, vocabulary expansion, autonomy in learning, and content quality. Furthermore, the critical challenges were a lack of contextual understanding, loss of individuality in writing, reduction in creativity, and ethical concerns. This research can help future researchers and instructors understand how to use AI tools to write effectively and enhance the strengths and diminish the possible challenges.