ROLE OF AI TO DEVELOP HUMAN-LIKE EMOTIONS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS' WRITING AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

The aim of the present research was to explore the role of AI to develop human-like emotions in English Language learners’ writing at university level. It was conducted in University of the Punjab, Lahore and the population consisted of all the students who were enrolled in the BS degree program in English department in the academic year 2023 – 2026. It was a case study research design, based on AI and digital storytelling approach in nature. The content of the stories was based on Gaza issue. 30 English Language learners of BS English program participated in this research who were purposively selected. The researcher divided participants into two groups (15 participants in each group). One group was assigned to read AI generated stories regarding Gaza war and the other group was taught via digital storytelling approach by the researcher. Story-writing on the given issue was assigned to the participants to assess the emotional output in their writing that was developed in them via stories on Gaza war. To analyze the data, a qualitative linguistic analysis approach was employed. For the detection of the role in the development of human-like emotions in AI generated and students’ self-written stories, document analysis was done. It was found that the artificial feelings were present in the written stories of the English language learners who were taught via AI. Though AI enhanced the learners’ writing performance in the ideas generation regarding Gaza war, paragraph sequencing, sentence structuring, vocabulary building, etc., but, in spite of this, it failed to develop human-like emotions in them. On the other hand, deep human emotional tendency was found in the written stories of English language learners who were taught via digital storytelling technique. It indicated that digital storytelling (students’ self-generated stories) led to develop humanly emotions in English language learners. It is, therefore, recommended that the excessive reliance on the use of AI in the educational field be balanced with the active human involvement. The AI machines must be kept subservient to the human beings as the former lack biological existence and, henceforth, heartfelt human emotions that are essential in some ways in the language learning processes.