Exploring the Acceptance of ChatGPT as an Assisting Tool in Academic Writing among ESL Undergraduate Students

This study aimed to explore students’ acceptance of ChatGPT as an assisting tool in academic writing among ESL undergraduate students. ChatGPT is a well-known AI tool with capabilities for language translation, writing drafts, and instant feedback and has effectively helped students improve their English language skills, particularly writing. While ChatGPT has demonstrated great acceptance in writing among EFL students, little is known about ESL students’ acceptance of this tool in their academic writing. This study adopted Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to discover students’ perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, attitudes, behavioral intention to use, and actual system usage of ChatGPT. Employing a quantitative approach and descriptive cross-sectional survey design, a structured questionnaire consisting of 24 questions was distributed online to ESL undergraduate students studying at one public university in Malaysia. This study collected 80 completed responses, and the data was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings revealed that ESL undergraduate students highly perceived ChatGPT as useful and easy to use in academic writing. Students also expressed positive attitudes towards ChatGPT, high intention to use ChatGPT, and high actual ChatGPT usage in their academic writing. This study concluded that the ESL undergraduate students strongly accepted ChatGPT as a tool in their academic writing, and attitudes were the prominent factor predicting their acceptance of ChatGPT. These findings offer ESL students an understanding of ChatGPT’s potential in writing and help them leverage it to overcome academic writing difficulties.