Indonesian University Dtudents’ Grammarly Independent Appropriation: Motivation and Perception

Abstract

Formative feedback is an important element in writing instruction. It brings benefits to students’ domain-specific skills as well as students’ overall writing development.  Current technological advancements create affordances for technology-based feedback. Over the years, various Automated Writing Evaluation (AWE) tools have been created by applying computational method to analyze texts then automatically generate assessment of grammar, mechanics and style, one of which is Grammarly. This study aims to explore the motivation and perspective of university students in appropriating Grammarly in instruction which does not promote AWE. Employing narrative inquiry, this study gathered the experience of 2 Indonesian university students using a variety of personal narrative.  It was found that the participants’ independent Grammarly appropriation is to be motivated by their belief in learning, feedback preference and English proficiency. Also, their proficiency shapes their appropriating behavior and perspective about the machine generated feedback. Regardless the pros and cons, AWE seems to continue to gain significance in writing pedagogy in today’s 21^st century education environment as they promote students’ learning as well information, media and technology skills.