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Arab World English Journal (AWEJ) Special Issue on Artificial Intelligence 2025 Pp.157-175
Department of English, College of Education, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah,
11952, Saudi Arabia
Department of English, College of Education, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah,
11952, Saudi Arabia,
Despite a growing body of research exploring Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools in educational settings, there is a significant gap in their utilization as aids in Master’s theses regarding attitude, content, and structure. Therefore, this research aimed to investigate postgraduate students’ attitudes toward using ChatGPT to enhance the quality of their Master’s thesis and identify the aspects of thesis writing where ChatGPT is most beneficial from postgraduates’ perspectives. A mixed-method design was implemented using semi-structured interviews and a questionnaire; it includes a sample of 31 postgraduate students, 21 (68 %) females and 10 (32%) males. The findings revealed that postgraduate EFL learners demonstrate a highly positive attitude toward using ChatGPT as an AI assistant tool to improve the quality of their Master’s thesis. Moreover, the findings of the analysis of the interviews revealed that students found ChatGPT to be a source of information, an idea generation and analyzing tool, proofreading support, grammar correction, sentence structure improvement, thesis structure and APA style citation, and a source of instant feedback improving students’ thesis writing. This study is significant because these students turned to ChatGPT as an alternative solution to bridge the gap and improve the overall quality of their thesis writing. This study highlights crucial pedagogical implications for supervisors and teachers to be aware of the potential advantages, ethical issues, and limitations of using ChatGPT to enhance thesis writing and to maintain their role in offering students support and detailed feedback.
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Manar Manar Mohammed Almousa is an independent scholar. She holds a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics from Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah, 11952, Saudi Arabia, specializing in AI tools in Education.
ORCID :https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1256-0175
Dr. Atef AbuSa’aleek is an associate professor of Applied Linguistics, Department of English, College of Education, Majmaah University, Al-Majmaah, 11952, Saudi Arabia. His research interests are applied linguistics, internet linguistics, supervisory feedback, electronic feedback, and AI tools in writing. Email: a.odeh@mu.edu.sa
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4727-2455