Special Issue for Foreign Language Studies
CALL FOR PAPERS
AI and Writing
Guest Editors:
Yachao Sun (Duke Kunshan University, China)
Ge Lan (City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong)
Abstract Submission Deadline: 15 May 2024
Since the release of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has garnered widespread attention globally. This powerful generative capability has sparked discussions about its potential benefits and challenges in writing research, practice, and education. Recognizing the need for guidance, the Modern Language Association of America and the Conference on College Composition and Communication released a Joint Task Force on Writing and AI Working Paper in July 2023. This document offers a comprehensive overview of the issues, outlines guiding principles, and suggests recommendations for writing education. The document highlights both the risks and benefits of AI for writing educators, students, and programs. On the downside, an over-dependence on generative AI may lead to neglecting essential writing, reading, and thinking skills. This could potentially undermine the importance of writing or language studies and exacerbate linguistic injustice. On the upside, when used appropriately, generative AI can serve as a supportive digital tool to enhance writing education and research. Therefore, educators, students, and practitioners are urged to critically use and evaluate content produced by AI tools (MLA-CCCC, 2023).
With the widespread discussions on generative AI, research has been conducted to understand its implications for the domain of writing. One avenue of exploration focuses on the ethical dimensions associated with academic publishing (Casal & Kessler, 2023). They explored whether experts could distinguish between AI and human-produced writing and their ethical views on using AI tools in research. Their findings revealed that most reviewers could not correctly identify AI-generated content, with only a 38.9% success rate. They also reported that while some editors saw ethical applications for AI in research, others held reservations. Another study by Dynel (2023) delved into the interaction between humans and AI by examining linguistic practices on Reddit's r/ChatGPT. The results emphasized that such interactions could enhance users’ metalanguage, metadiscourse, metacommunication, and metapragmatics awareness, which was also reflected in ChatGPT’s responses due to its human-influenced training. Moreover, Pfau, Polio, and Xu (2023) assessed ChatGPT’s ability to assess second language (L2) writing. Their research found a strong correlation between ChatGPT’s error detection and human evaluations, although its accuracy decreased for lower proficiency levels. Given these diverse research directions and the increasing attention they receive, it is evident that a thorough examination of generative AI’s role in shaping writing practices, research methodologies, and educational paradigms is not only beneficial but also essential.
This special issue of Foreign Language Studies, slated for release in December 2025, will be dedicated to exploring issues, challenges, and practices associated with generative AI in writing practice, research, and education. Submissions addressing the following topics, but are not limited to them, are invited:
- Tools & Technologies: Examination of AI-driven writing tools. How are they changing the process of writing, editing, and publishing?
- Ethical and Social Implications: What are the societal consequences of AI-driven writing? Considerations might include authorship, authenticity, misinformation, and ethical considerations in AI content generation.
- Future Directions: Speculative pieces on where AI and writing might be headed. What innovations can we expect in the next decade?
- Pedagogical Implications: How can educators integrate AI tools into the writing classroom? What are the benefits and challenges?
- Creative Outputs: Exploring the artistic dimensions of AI and writing. This could include AI-generated poetry, stories, or collaborative pieces between humans and AI.
Contributors are encouraged to explore AI and writing topics beyond the listed themes. We are particularly interested in full-length articles that offer unique perspectives, no matter whether they are theoretically, methodologically, ideologically, pedagogically, or practically grounded. Any studies that may ignite discussions on issues within the AI and writing domain are welcome. Submissions, to be written in English, should range between 6,000 to 10,000 words. The special issue also welcomes book reviews and research notes relevant to the theme, typically spanning 2,000 to 3,000 words.
Timeline
Abstracts due 31 March 2024
Notification of full submission invitation 15 May 2024
Papers due for peer review 31 December 2024
Review decision 31 March 2025
Final papers due 15 July 2025
Publication date 15 December 2025
Foreign Language Studies, founded in 2004, is an open-access peer-reviewed journal of foreign literature, language, teaching, and cultural studies, and one of the most well-established academic journals in Taiwan. As a multi-lingual journal, it is dedicated to the interdisciplinary exploration of literature, language, teaching, and culture. It focuses on the emergence of global vision and dialogue by addressing theoretical and practical issues arising from the encounter of various literatures, languages, teachings, and cultures around the world. It is currently indexed in Taiwan Citation Index - Humanities and Social Sciences, NCL Taiwan Periodical Literature, Airiti Library, HyRead Journal, Taiwan Academic Citation Index, Taiwan Journals Search, and LawData.
We welcome inquiries and proposals for co-authored contributions. Please contact the co-editors: Yachao Sun (ys302@duke.edu) and Ge Lan (gelan4@cityu.edu.hk).
Yachao Sun (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor in the Language and Culture Center at Duke Kunshan University, China. He has published in international journals such as TESOL Quarterly, Journal of Second Language Writing, System, Language Teaching Research, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Applied Linguistics Review, and Assessing Writing. His research interests include multilingual writing, translingual studies, multimodal composition, and corpus linguistics.
Ge Lan (Ph.D.) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at City University of Hong Kong. His research interests include corpus linguistics, register studies, functional linguistics, English for academic and specific purposes, second language writing, and bibliometrics. He has recently published in the Journal of Second Language Writing, TESOL Quarterly, English for Specific Purposes, Journal of English for Academic Purposes, Assessing Writing, and System, among others.
References
Casal, J. E., & Kessler, M. (2023). Can linguists distinguish between ChatGPT/AI and human writing?: A study of research ethics and academic publishing. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 2(3), 100068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2023.100068
Dynel, M. (2023). Lessons in linguistics with ChatGPT: Metapragmatics, metacommunication, metadiscourse, and metalanguage in human-AI interactions. Language & Communication, 93, 107-124. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2023.09.002
MLA-CCCC. (2023). MLA-CCCC joint task force on writing and AI working paper: Overview of the issues, statement of principles, and recommendations. Accessed by November 1, 2023. https://hcommons.org/app/uploads/sites/1003160/2023/07/MLA-CCCC-Joint-Task-Force-on-Writing-and-AI-Working-Paper-1.pdf
Pfau, A., Polio, C., & Xu, Y. (2023). Exploring the potential of ChatGPT in assessing L2 writing accuracy for research purposes. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 2(3), 100083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rmal.2023.100083