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Australian Review of Applied Linguistics: Online-First Articles

Co-creating stories with generative AI

Reflections from undergraduate students of a storytelling service-learning subject in Hong Kong

ORCID logo | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
 | The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Publicly available Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools are said to liberate students from the instrumental use of English and empower them to write creative texts to communicate with different communities. This paper reports on an undergraduate language-related service-learning subject in a Hong Kong tertiary institution. In the subject, students co-created digital stories with asylum-seeking children, in written and podcast formats, with the help of GenAI. The qualitative content analysis of semi-structured interviews with the students found that this experience expanded the students’ creative potential. Meanwhile, GenAI played a peripheral role in the story creation processes, in that the students exercised agency to use the tools and remained critical of the AI-generated content. This study argues that digital storytelling with GenAI, when used critically, promotes linguistic, digital and cultural awareness among ESL learners, offering them a third space to interact with culturally diverse communities in Hong Kong and giving them genuine ownership of English for creative and communicative purposes.
Keywords: experiential learning, service-learning, story creation, English language learning, writing with GenAI
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Context of the study
    • 1.2Organisation of the paper
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Digital storytelling and GenAI: Issues of language learner development, ‘voice,’ and ‘identity’
    • 2.2GenAI for language learning: Benefits and challenges
    • 2.3Integration of digital storytelling for English learning in service-learning
  • 3.Research questions
  • 4.Methods
    • 4.1Research participants
    • 4.2Data collection
    • 4.3Data analysis
    • 4.4Ethical considerations
  • 5.Findings
    • 5.1Pivotal role of English for creative and communicative purposes
    • 5.2Peripheral Roles of GenAI in the Story Creation Processes
    • 5.3Students’ agency of non-GenAI use
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1English learning through storytelling vs instrumentalist approaches
    • 6.2Storytelling in English with GenAI: Expressing voices, identities, and agency
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Author queries
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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