Developing college students’ creative thinking and English story writing through AI-supported collaborative learning

Many English as a foreign language (EFL) students struggle to generate the ideas, express their emotions, and using English to write stories due to the lack of creativity in traditional or teacher-centered writing environment. This study aimed to investigate the effects of AI-supported collaborative learning on EFL college students’ creative thinking and English story writing. A total of 38 EFL college students from two classes, with 16 in the experimental group (AI-supported collaborative writing) and 22 in the control group (traditional writing instruction). The results showed the experimental group improved creativity in fluency, flexibility, and elaboration. The control group made progress in fluency and flexibility; however, effect sizes were small. AI-supported collaborative writing includes story chains, word choice, grammar checking, chatbots, peer feedback and evaluation which promote students’ creative thinking and enhance their English story writing. This study suggests that AI-supported collaborative learning helps college students developing their creative thinking and English story writing.