Examining Chinese EFL Students’ Acceptance of ERNIE Bot in a Process Writing Approach: Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness

This study explored the acceptance of Chinese EFL students of ERNIE Bot in the context of process writing approach with respect to perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness. Based on two basic constructs in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the study investigated the students' overall attitude toward the tool and the degree to which perceived ease of use forecasted perceived usefulness in AI chatbot assisted process writing. By combing the questionnaire and interview, a post-intervention mixed-methods design was used. Thirty-five first-year English majors took part in a 16-week academic writing course and ERNIE Bot was mainly integrated during the revising and editing stages. Results showed that students had positive perceptions of ERNIE Bot in both dimensions generally. Perceived ease of use was positively associated with perceived usefulness and significantly predicted students’ perceptions of usefulness. These findings suggest that the pedagogical value of AI chatbots in process writing is dependent not only on their functional capabilities, but also on usability and the quality of instructional scaffolding.