A study on the attitudes of graduate students in foreign languages disciplines towards GAI-assisted academic paper writing

At present, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is one of the widely studied topics in the academic community, however, not many studies investigated the attitudes of the graduate students in foreign languages disciplines towards GAI-assisted academic paper writing. Accordingly, the present study employed a mixed-methods research approach to investigate the attitudes of Chinese graduate students in foreign languages disciplines towards GAI-assisted academic paper writing and the factors influencing these attitudes. The findings indicated that Chinese graduate students in foreign languages disciplines generally maintained positive attitudes towards GAI-assisted academic paper writing, with Effort Expectancy identified as the key factor influencing this attitudinal orientation. Further analyses revealed 4 types of GAI users: Collaborative Innovative Users, Technology-Oriented Users, Professionally Guided Users, and Novice Exploratory Users. This paper could expand the boundaries of research on the attitudes towards GAI-assisted academic paper writing, and provide inspiration for educators to enhance the GAI-assisted research capability of graduate students in foreign languages disciplines.