An Analysis of College Students’ Motivation to Use ChatGPT for English Writing in a Teacher-Machine-Student Trinity Classroom Scenario

Abstract

English writi ng is a necessary skill for college students, but it is also the weakest to improve English Writing Ability (EWA). Since ChatGPT became popular in the world in late 2022, there have been many controversies about applying it to English writing teaching, but there is a lack of experiments on it. In this paper, based on a practical study of ChatGPT-empowered college students’ EWA conducted in a vocational university, authors analyze the motivation of college students to use ChatGPT for enhancing EWA through questionnaires and interviews. It was found that college students’ purposes of using ChatGPT for English writing centered on improving the efficiency of writing composition, reducing the consumption of writing time, expanding writing ideas, perfecting the logical chain of writing, improving self-confidence in English learning, and increasing interest in English writing. Meanwhile, the experiment was conducted in a “teacher-machine-student” trinity model classroom with students-centered, which provides a reference for the future change of the teaching mode of college English writing.