Abstract:

Incorporating artificial intelligence into teaching is more frequently discussed now than ever. Although some risks are commonly discussed, positive effects seem to prevail over negative ones. The most frequently mentioned negative impact in the university setting is plagiarism once using the ChatGPT application. However, its use for training writing in a target language might be very useful.

Our study investigates the impact of using ChatGPT on developing the written skills of future Slovak teachers of English. The group of students in their master-degree programme admitted some limits in their abilities to write in English naturally, accurately and appropriately at a particular level of proficiency. The expected level of the graduates is C1, which, in line with the descriptors relevant to this level, indicates that these proficient users of English are expected to write clear, smoothly flowing, well-structured and mostly accurate texts on complex subjects, emphasizing the relevant salient issues.

Alongside some introductory ideas on how to use ChatGPT to do research for papers, presentations, studies and other pieces of writing, the instructions referring to using ChatGPT for telling the topic and asking for resources, the more essential aspects referred to getting feedback on a paragraph or using Chat GPT as a dictionary or a thesaurus, etc. were presented, analyzed and practices by students. The function of using ChatGPT as a critical reviewer was evaluated positively as future teachers have mostly problems with asking their peers to be their reviewers and are not prepared to be criticized by them.

Besides findings on the effects of using ChatGPT on improving future teachers’ written performances, the participating university students will be distributed a questionnaire that is aimed at identifying which AI tools were the most effective for language learners and which risks future teachers could discover while using AI tools.

Keywords:

Platform AI, application ChatGPT, future teachers of English, written performances, a questionnaire.