ai-assistant writing tools - what are they good for?

Should teachers be encouraging our students - and indeed ourselves as students - to use AI?

There are of course the very popular tools ChatGPT and Grammarly.

And the excellent translator has developed its DeepL Write: AI-powered writing companion, although there are plenty of other places to go for a Free AI-Powered Writing Assistant.

But beyond all these competing offers, perhaps we as teachers and students should be asking how exactly to use these tools.

The E L Gazette looks at revising with AI-assistant tools and how they can really help students develop their language skills - and Maryem Larhmaid gives a good example of what we can do

What role does Grammarly play in editing Moroccan EFL university students’ writing?

In recent years, digital tools have become increasingly used in language classrooms, offering learners of various levels new possibilities beyond the limits of conventional instruction.

Among these tools, AI-assisted writing tools such as Grammarly have attracted particular interest for their ability to improve students’ writing style, vocabulary usage, and sentence structure.

In Moroccan higher education, where English is taught as a Foreign Language (EFL), students are required to develop academic writing skills despite challenges such as large class sizes and little individualised feedback.

Context and rationale

Even though academic writing is essential to university studies, Moroccan EFL students still find it to be one of the most complex skills. Many students struggle to establish coherent sentence patterns, convey their thoughts clearly, and choosing correct words. These problems are not just linguistic; they are linked to general difficulties, including insufficient time for writing instruction, few practice opportunities, and the challenge of giving each student thorough feedback. In many universities, writing instructors may oversee dozens of essays per week, making it practically impossible to provide complete, detailed comments to every student.

This gap opens the door for AI-assisted writing tools. Unlike basic grammar checkers, platforms like Grammarly provide students with more sophisticated suggestions for word choice, sentence clarity, cohesion, and even tone. However, while these tools are increasingly discussed in teaching/learning contexts, there is still limited empirical evidence assessing their influence on EFL academic writing in Morocco. My research, therefore, sought to answer the following question: How can AI-generated feedback influence students’ lexical variety and sentence complexity in academic writing?

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