Investigating Chinese EAP learners’ usage and perceptions of generative AI in academic writing: A case study of a Sino-British university

This study explores the usage and perceptions of generative AI for academic writing among Chinese English for Academic Purposes (EAP) learners studying at a transnational university in China. The participants (n=40) received semester-long training on AI literacies integrated in the EAP writing curriculum, and their perceptions of using GenAI to help with academic writing were investigated both before and after the training via a survey. Specifically, the learners’ perceptions of their behaviours, namely user readiness, adoption intention, and actual usage, as well as the GenAI tool, namely perceived usefulness, perceived trust, interactivity, personalization, and perceived intelligence, were examined. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted to understand the learners’ usage and challenges. The findings show the largest increases were reported in actual usage, adoption intention, perceived usefulness, and perceived intelligence and that the learners still required support for more effective use of GenAI in academic writing. Administrative and pedagogical implications were provided accordingly. This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ .