Students' Perception of ChatGPT as A Media for Learning Writing

Abstract

Writing is considered one of the significant abilities in learning the English language. Writing skill involves communicating ideas and information via written texts. Nevertheless, some students often find it hard to improve their writing skills because of the problems with grammar, vocabulary, and idea organizing. Artificial intelligence technologies have brought some new solutions that could be helpful for students. For instance, ChatGPT is the popular tool that helps users to generate ideas, edit their writing works, and increase the accuracy of language usage. This research investigates how the students enrolled in the English Education department at the 2023 batch of Universitas Negeri Medan perceive ChatGPT as the medium for learning writing using the theoretical framework of the technology acceptance model. Qualitative methodology was chosen, and data was collected using the questionnaire applied to the 87 sixths semester students. The analysis showed that the respondents had a positive attitude towards the discussed technology. Almost all participants (75.9%) found ChatGPT to be a convenient assistant in conducting writing activities, while 23% of the interviewees stated that it was very useful in idea generation and improving writing. Moreover, 50.6% of the students admitted using this application frequently in different situations, and 72.4% regularly used it for academic writing. Another advantage mentioned by the majority of respondents is the convenience associated with the interface and quick responses to queries. Although most of the interviewees positively viewed ChatGPT as a supportive tool, they all stressed the necessity of verifying information obtained from AI.