Artificial Intelligence Integration in Acquisition of English Academic Writing: a comparative analysis of student perspectives in school and university settings

In the rapidly changing world, educational establishments are facing a new reality and have to consider measures so that AI-powered tools neither harm the education process nor impede learning outcomes. Thus, the goal of the present study was to investigate student experiences in using AI when acquiring academic writing skills in English. The research method chosen for the study was a questionnaire survey. The research questions posed for the survey were: (1) Which types of AI-powered tools do students use in their language learning process? (2) What do students think about their effectiveness? (3) How do they apply AI in academic writing? One hundred and eighteen upper-secondary school and university students from Latvia participated in the survey. Overall, students demonstrated high awareness of AI software, with ChatGPT and Duolingo being the leaders among AI-powered language learning tools. Still, a quarter of the respondents did not hold any opinion on the effectiveness of the use of AI tools in learning languages. It was concluded that the use of such tools in academic writing in English is irregular, cautious and/or secretive both at the secondary and tertiary levels.