Xuehua Fu: BEYOND THE ESSAY: What happens when language learners compose with words, images, video and GenAI?

Fifty-five English-major undergraduates at a Chinese university participated in a 10-week intervention. Data included pre- and post-writing tests, video projects, composing-process screen recordings, video-stimulated recall interviews, and semi-structured interviews.

Findings showed that GenAI-P-MG-embedded writing instruction fostered more systematic preparation, global evaluation, and broader human-GenAI collaboration. The experimental group produced higher-quality DMC products overall and in four sub-dimensions, while developing stronger designer agency and greater audience, procedural, and task-complexity awareness. Effects on conventional writing were selective and dimension-specific, with advantages in syntactic complexity, comprehensibility, and qualitative developmental experiences, but weaker, less favourable, or conditional effects in other dimensions.