The design and evaluation of an interactive AI companion for foreign language writing

The Modern Language Association (MLA) published a writing and artificial intelligence (AI) working paper that provided an overview of key issues, concerns, and recommendations to help language educators make principle-driven pedagogical decisions to support critical AI literacy. To address the MLA's recommendations, a collaborative AI writing companion project was designed that assists learners in a process-oriented, design approach to writing. The tool seeks to emphasize writing as a meaningful, collaborative process of communication that involves both learner autonomy and a focus on textual conventions. Perceptions of the platform's efficacy were assessed employing constructs from the psychology of language learning such as writing self-efficacy, anxiety, and self-efficacy for self-regulation and user experience measures such as perceived anthropomorphism, teaching presence, and enjoyment. Findings revealed that students' perceptions and enjoyment of the AI chatbot were associated with how competent students perceived themselves to be as writers and other self-reported outcomes.