Structured ChatGPT-Assisted Writing Instruction and Academic Writing Performance Among Jordanian EFL University Students: Experimental Findings and Associations with Critical Thinking, Self-Regulated Learning, and Academic Motivation

The increasing use of generative artificial intelligence in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) writing is becoming prevalent, though there is still a gap between writing performance and cognitive and motivational variables. This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study, incorporating an individually randomized pre-test/post-test controlled comparison, explored the impact of an eight-week intervention program based on ChatGPT for EFL writing on 300 Jordanian university EFL learners. The subjects were randomly assigned to experimental (n = 150) and control (n = 150) groups following purposive sampling. Writing performance was tested using independent-samples t-tests and ANCOVA, and the relationships between ChatGPT-based learning, critical thinking, self-regulated learning, academic motivation, and writing performance were measured using PLS-SEM. The experimental group demonstrated significantly better post-test performance compared to the control group. There were positive correlations between ChatGPT-based learning and writing performance (β = 0.237), critical thinking (β = 0.456), self-regulated learning (β = 0.341), and academic motivation (β = 0.270) (p < 0.001). The qualitative results emphasized better feedback utilization, revision, autonomy, motivation, and responsible AI usage.