SHIZHOU YANG (PAYAP UNIVERSITY)

OUTSMARTING CHATGPT, THE NEW GHOSTWRITER: A COLLABORATIVE POETIC AUTOETHNOGRAPHY : DIGITAL LITERACIES/LANGUAGE LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGY

In the wake of its launch in late 2022, ChatGPT has sparked both excitement and apprehension among language professionals. Although various guidelines have been introduced by organizations, publishers, and institutions, these top-down approaches often overlook the nuanced experiences and perspectives of L2 writing teachers and students. This study aims to bridge this gap by centering on the experiences of one L2 writing teacher and two international students in an undergraduate academic writing course in an English medium program in Thai private university, where the class wrote, read about, and discussed what it meant to be an academic writer in the AI age. Employing collaborative poetic autoethnography, the study explored ChatGPT's role not merely as a tool or assistant, but as a new ghostwriter that demands careful navigation within the classroom writing ecology. The study drew on a wide range of classroom data—including experiments with ChatGPT, poems, reflections, freewriting samples, and drafts collected from January to May 2024. It will provide critical insights into the ethical and effective integration of ChatGPT in EFL writing classes. It will also contribute an evocative account of the opportunities and challenges presented by AI technologies in language and literacy education than available in current literature.

Shizhou Yang, PhD, assistant professor, is an applied linguist, second language writer, writing teacher, and researcher. His current interests include TESOL, translanguaging, and Global South epistemologies. He has published two books on EFL autobiographical writing (Routledge), multiple articles in international journals, and presented at various conferences.