Exploring the Use of ChatGPT in EFL/ESL Writing Classrooms: A Systematic Literature Review
Abstract
Background: ChatGPT has become increasingly prevalent in higher education, particularly within EFL/ESL writing classrooms. However, the rise in plagiarism and academic dishonesty associated with its unethical use is concerning. Educational institutions must explore and design AI-use-related best practices for using generative AI technology, such as ChatGPT, more ethically in the writing classrooms.
Purpose: To systematically review previous studies to investigate how university students use ChatGPT in their EFL/ESL writing classrooms. Given the evidence of how the students used ChatGPT, this study explores existing best practices to regulate ChatGPT’s ethical and responsible use in the classes.
Materials and Methods: Thirty-two (32) articles (i.e., 17 empirical and 15 non-empirical studies) from 31 peer-reviewed international journals were selected based on specific criteria comprising article types, quality, year of publication content, and contexts of the study, following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The articles were searched in May 2024, facilitated by the Publish or Perish software. Within the software, Google Scholar was deliberately chosen as the primary database. The inductive data analysis results were rigorously checked using multiple validation strategies and presented as themes to address the research goal.
Results: The analysis revealed that ChatGPT was utilized in the writing process for various academic and non-academic writing tasks, highlighting the potential bright and dark sides of ChatGPT’s use in writing. The study then identified four main categories of regulating the use of ChatGPT in EFL/ESL writing classrooms, which include institutional policies, instructional writing strategies, assessment design innovation, and ethical co-regulation practices. Drawing on the analyses and discussions of the previous studies, the researcher suggested sample writing activities with the ethical and productive use of ChatGPT, outlined pedagogy and policy implications for regulating ChatGPT in the writing classrooms, and proposed directions for future research.
Conclusion: Key patterns in how EFL/ESL learners have used ChatGPT in writing tasks and eight replicable best practices for regulating its use in classroom contexts were identified, where among these, co-creating ethical guidelines with students and emphasizing the writing process seemed to be particularly promising strategies to mitigate the unethical use of ChatGPT in EFL/ESL writing classrooms.
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