ChatGPT as a writing peer: Enhancing university students’ writing skills through AI-assisted formative assessment

Abstract

This study explores how university students perceive and use ChatGPT as a tool to enhance their English academic writing skills under instructor guidance. Forty first-year Japanese students enrolled in an academic writing course at two private universities in Tokyo participated in the study. Over six weeks of structured training sessions that incorporated the use of ChatGPT, students engaged with the tool as a feedback partner to revise their writing drafts. A post-study questionnaire was administered to examine students' perceptions of ChatGPT's effectiveness and their overall reflections. The results indicated substantial improvement in scores across all four evaluation criteria (content, communicative achievement, organization, and language) in the second drafts after using ChatGPT. However, students also expressed some hesitation about integrating ChatGPT into their writing process and identified several challenges (for example, providing effective prompts to ChatGPT). The findings contribute to ongoing discussions on incorporating generative artificial intelligence (AI) into writing instruction, highlighting both the pedagogical potential and limitations of ChatGPT as a supportive peer tool in tertiary education.