AI as a Critical Opponent: Effects on L2 Writers’ Warranting and Argument Quality

Abstract:

Assessing L2 students’ argumentative writing quality requires attention not only to the presence of key components including thesis, evidence, counterargument, and rebuttal, but also to the depth of reasoning that connects these elements. Many EFL students can produce structural components yet struggle to justify their claims clearly. This study investigates whether AI-mediated dialogic practice via ChatGPT 5.1 can improve argument quality in a B2-level writing course. In a quasi-experimental design, both groups receive instruction on argumentation, but the experimental group also engages in AI-supported pro–opponent exchanges in which the AI challenges claims, questions evidence, and presents counterarguments for students to rebut. Essays from both groups will be rated with an analytic rubric aligned with CEFR principles and adapted through stakeholder input. By foregrounding assessment outcomes, the study examines the potential of dialogic AI to support instructional design and evidence-based evaluation in argumentative writing.

Date:

16.02.2026, 16:00 UK time

Speakers:

Burcu Kayarkaya

Selahattin Yılmaz

Bios:

Burcu Kayarkaya is an ELT instructor in the Modern Languages Department at Yıldız Technical University (YTU). She has also worked as a language test developer and item writer/editor for a high-stakes exam body and currently working for the EU–Council of Europe Joint Project on foreign language education quality in Türkiye as a language test developer. She holds an MA in English Language Teaching, and her PhD focused on translanguaging-informed writing instruction and assessment design. She has presented in various international conferences, including IATEFL 2025, where she was awarded the TOEFL scholarship.

Selahattin Yılmaz, Ph.D. is an EAP instructor at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul and currently serves as a language test developer for the EU–Council of Europe Joint Project on foreign language education quality in Türkiye. He completed his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University and has published in leading journals such as English for Specific Purposes, Journal of English for Academic Purposes and Porta Linguarum. His research focuses on second language writing, corpus-based analysis, and AI-mediated pedagogy, and he has presented at major international venues including AAAL, AACL, and EALTA.