From Tool to Partner: Generative AI as a Dialogic Aid in Postgraduate EFL Writing

Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping the way students learn to write in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). While there has been a focus on the technology as a grammar check and spell-check tool, research into the field is heading in a new direction by looking at whether it can take the role of a dialogic partner that helps postgraduate EFL students, particularly those studying Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL), develop ideas, build arguments, and refine their thinking. The present paper takes a look at a number of recent studies looking into the question. Using the Sociocultural Theory (SCT) as an example and also the Hybrid Intelligent Feedback Systems (HIFS) that underpin it, the article argues that the real utility of GenAI has nothing to do with technology itself but depends on how effective its implementation will be in a given pedagogical context. The findings reveal a key tension: while Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are effective at correcting surface-level errors and even producing ready-made first drafts, they often do little to support students’ deeper engagement with meaning. Although postgraduate students may paraphrase or humanize AI-generated text, such revisions usually remain at the sentence level rather than addressing broader issues of argumentation and organization. as such, the paper proposes viewing GenAI as a cognitive partner that offers dialogic support, rather than as a substitute for the human writer. However, this partnership is conditional since it works only when students use AI constructively rather than outsourcing their thinking. The paper concludes that realizing AI’s potential requires developing AI literacy among both teachers and learners, designing tasks that demand genuine reasoning, and rethinking the roles of teacher, learner, and tool in the postgraduate writing classroom.

کلیدواژه ها:

Generative Artificial Intelligence ، EFL writing ، dialogic feedback ، sociocultural theory ، hybrid intelligent feedback systems ، AI literacy ، writing pedagogy ، cognitive partnership