The Impact of AI Powered Writing Tools on Students’ Academic Writing Performance

Abstract

The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies has brought new resources that have a profound impact on the academic writing process. Under the IELTS Writing Test 2 rubric, this study investigated how AI-based writing software affected students' written performance on five main areas: task achievement, organization, grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics. A pretest and a posttest were administered to 35 undergraduate students who participated in the study, which used a within-subjects, repeated-measures experimental design. To learn how AI-based writing software affects written output, the subjects received training on it in between. Five factors were used to grade the essays, and statistical procedures were performed utilizing correlation, paired-sample t-test, effect size measurements, and descriptive statistics. The findings revealed a slight rise in vocabulary (mean increase from 2.22 to 2.43) and a notable improvement in grammar (mean increase from 1.14 to 1.77). However, there was no change in mechanics, organization, or task achievement. The improvement was not statistically significant at the whole-test level, according to the correlation between pretest and posttest achievement (r = 0.317, p = 0.064). According to the findings, AI-based software improves vocabulary and grammar at the surface level while having no impact on deeper-level skills like coherence, arrangement, and formatting of text. The study comes to the conclusion that while AI-based software holds potential for teaching second language writing, its effectiveness depends more on learner training, reflective practice, and instructionally integrated usage than it does on technology adoption in and of itself.

Keywords:  Second Language Learning, Artificial Intelligance, Writing Accuracy, ESL Writing, AI-Powered Tools, Educational Technology