Enhancing critical language awareness in EAL writing education amid the rise of generative artificial intelligence

The emergence of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools has presented both opportunities and challenges in English as an Additional Language (EAL) writing education. This mixed-methods exploratory study investigated how Chinese EAL students perceived and used GenAI, and how these attitudes and behaviors reflected their Critical Language Awareness (CLA). Survey data were collected from 320 Chinese undergraduate and graduate students studying in China and abroad, supplemented by in-depth semi-structured interviews with five volunteers. Quantitative findings revealed that, while participants valued GenAI for reducing language barriers and enhancing writing mechanics, they remained wary of issues related to originality, transparency, and ethical accountability. Qualitative analysis further illuminated participants' emerging CLA, evident in their negotiations of power (managing overreliance and misinformation), ideology (navigating dominant academic norms), and social justice (acknowledging cultural biases encoded in GenAI training data). Although students were primarily motivated by pragmatic benefits, such as improved grammar, structure, and efficiency, they also recognized GenAI's potential to perpetuate monolingual, Western-centric perspectives. These results underscore the need to embed CLA principles in GenAI-assisted pedagogy. By encouraging students to critically interrogate GenAI outputs, question linguistic hierarchies, and reflect on sociocultural contexts, educators can better leverage GenAI's affordances while fostering ethical, culturally responsive, and equitable writing practices.