Artificial versus human intelligence in academic essay writing: Do we have to compete with AI?

Abstract

The development of artificial intelligence opens up new opportunities for learning a second language and acquiring language skills. At the same time, when it comes to academic writing, AI’s ability to generate unique narratives makes it a serious rival to those students who work independently. Obviously, it is no use trying to ban ChatGPT or other similar technologies. Therefore, if ESL teachers do not want their students to lose critical thinking faculties, it is time to review methods of teaching academic writing. This study examines two groups of short essays on the same subject (analysis of a free verse poem), those written by senior ESL students and generated by artificial intelligence. Comparison between the groups is made in terms of linguistic characteristics of the essays (vocabulary, syntactic structures, figures of speech) and originality of the poem’s interpretation. Typical weak and strong points of the human-authored and AI-generated essays are pointed out. It is suggested that prior to setting an essay writing task, students can be engaged in choosing a topic that might interest them. They can start with writing a mock essay, ask ChatGPT to do the same, compare the two versions, and discuss the results in class. AI can help cope with linguistic problems; as to generating ideas, it is worth encouraging students to do it independently.