L2 students’ academic emotions in teacher feedback and GAI-generated feedback on argumentative writing

With the rise of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) in the field of second (foreign) language writing, GAI-generated feedback has garnered increasing scholarly attention. While previous research has compared the efficacy of GAI and teacher feedback, the academic emotions elicited by GAI during the revision process remain under-explored. To fill this lacuna, this study employed a mixed-methods research design to investigate the emotional experiences and corresponding regulation strategies of L2 students in both teacher and GAI-generated feedback contexts. Eighty-six Chinese master’s students participated in the study, with qualitative data gathered from written retrospective reflections, essays with teacher feedback, screenshots documenting the GAI-assisted revision process, and semi-structured interviews. The results revealed that students experienced higher levels of positive emotions in teacher-feedback contexts, whereas GAI-generated feedback was associated with more negative emotions. Furthermore, the findings identified distinct occurrences, types, and developmental trajectories of emotions across the two feedback conditions. This study offers important pedagogical implications, encouraging teachers to adopt hybrid feedback strategies and suggesting ways to help students manage negative emotions by fostering a growth mindset and enhancing feedback literacy.