Artificial Intelligence in teaching creative writing: A systematic review in L1 and additional languages learning contexts

Antonio Acosta Sánchez; Fernando Jesús Trujillo Sáez; Blasina Cantizano Márquez

doi:10.30827/portalin.vi46.36819

Authors

Antonio Acosta Sánchez Universidad de Granada (Corresponding author)
Fernando Jesús Trujillo Sáez Universidad de Granada
Blasina Cantizano Márquez University of Almería https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0329-242X

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30827/portalin.vi46.36819

Keywords:

Artificial Intelligence, Creative Writing, Language Learning, Large Language Models, Writing

Agencies: This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Universities under the pre-doctoral research grant program FPU (Formación de Profesorado Universitario), grant number FPU23/00671

Abstract

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly generative models, has profoundly impacted language education, creating a research gap concerning its application in creative writing. This systematic review follows the PRISMA 2020 guidelines to analyse 21 experimental or quasi-experimental studies published between 2020 and 2025, exploring the use of AI in teaching creative writing in both first language (L1) and additional language (AL) contexts. The findings show a nascent but rapidly expanding field, with 76% of included studies published in 2024 or 2025. Research is primarily conducted in higher education, and commercial Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are the most frequently used tools. Creative writing tasks overwhelmingly centre on short stories, particularly in L2 settings. AI integration mostly occurs in the pre-writing (idea generation) and drafting (feedback/refinement) phases. Students generally perceive AI positively, reporting increased creativity, particularly through image generation, and enhanced motivation and engagement. AI co-creation is linked to improvements in textual quality for less proficient learners, such as better logical structure and grammatical accuracy. This review highlights the potential of AI as a co-creation tool in the creative writing classroom.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Antonio Acosta Sánchez, Universidad de Granada (Corresponding author)

Antonio Acosta Sánchez is a PhD candidate at the University of Granada, holding a FPU Grant from the
Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. He was also a FLTA-Fulbright Scholar for the 2023-2024 academic year. He holds two Bachelor's degrees from the University of Almería, one in English Studies and another in Hispanic Philology, both awarded with the Extraordinary Prize for the Best Academic Record. Additionally, Antonio has a Master's in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (UNIR) and a Master's in Teaching Secondary School Education Students (UAL). His current academic interests include language and literature didactics in L1 and additional languages, creative writing, and literary analysis with a focus on minorities, encompassing migration, gender, and LGBTQ+ studies.

Fernando Jesús Trujillo Sáez, Universidad de Granada

Fernando-Jesús Trujillo Sáez is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Granada, Spain, in the Department of Didactics of Language and Literature. He teaches at the Faculty of Education, Economics, and Technology in Ceuta (University of Granada). His research interests include education and technology, with a focus on open knowledge for social action. He holds a PhD in English Philology from the University of Granada. Dr. Trujillo Sáez has coordinated the "Global Framework for Learning and Educating in the Digital Age" (Fundación ProFuturo, 2020), which has been translated into English, French, and Portuguese. He is also a co-Principal Investigator for the LEYLA I+D+i Project, focusing on designing a teaching profile for early childhood education with a plurilingual approach.

Blasina Cantizano Márquez, University of Almería

Blasina Cantizano Márquez holds a PHD in English Literature (Granada, 1999) and is Senior lecturer in English at the Philology department at the University of Almeria, where she has been appointed Academic Coordinator of the Master’s Program in English Studies. Member of Lindisfarne Research Group (HUM 807), her research work began in the study of British travel literature about Spain. Henceforth, she combined that main subject with other topics related to women writers and gender roles in literature. She is currently working on contemporary subjects, such as modern technologies in teaching literature, literary adaptations and transmedia storytelling.

References

Azlina, S., Ahmad, M. F., & Abdullah, Z. (2021). Creative drama as a teaching tool in the classroom. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(3), 1–6.

Behrens, K. A., Marbach-Ad, G., & Kocher, T. D. (2024). AI in the Genetics Classroom: A Useful Tool but not a Replacement for Creative Writing. Journal Of Science Education And Technology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10956-024-10160-6

Boumous, M. (2024). Human Creativity Vs. Artificial Intelligence: A Comparison of Horror Fiction Crafting from `Bookish Minds Club’ at Souk Ahras University and Claude AI. In Rupkatha Journal On Interdisciplinary Studies In Humanities (Vol. 16, Issue 3). Aesthetics Media Services-Aesthetixms. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v16n3.01

Cassany, D. (2005). Expresión escrita en L2/ELE. Arco Libros Madrid.

Cassany, D. (2024). (Enseñar a) leer y escribir con inteligencias artificiales generativas: Reflexiones, oportunidades y retos. Enunciación, 29(2), 320–336.

Chamcharatsri, B., & Iida, A. (2022) International Perspectives on Creative Writing in Second Language Education. Supporting Language Learners’ Proficiency, Identity, and Creative Expression. Taylor & Francis.

Cheung, L. M. E., & Shi, H. (2024). Co-creating stories with generative AI. Australian Review Of Applied Linguistics, 47(3), 259–283.

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2020). Making sense: Reference, agency, and structure in a grammar of multimodal meaning. Cambridge University Press.

Council of Europe (Ed.). (2020). Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment ; companion volume. Council of Europe Publishing.

Dai, F. (2015). Teaching creative writing in English in the Chinese context. World Englishes, 34(2), 247–259. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12136

de la Torre Sánchez, Á. (2022). Experiencias digitales con la poesía en el aula de ELE. Álabe. Revista de Investigación Sobre Lectura y Escritura, Extraordinario 1. https://doi.org/10.25115/Alabe.2022.1.3

de la Torre Sánchez, Á. (2023). Creaciones poéticas visuales en la enseñanza de español como LE/L2: Análisis y resultados de una experiencia didáctica. Digilec, 10, 162-183 http://hdl.handle.net/2183/36444

de la Torre Sánchez, Á. de la T. (2022). Literatura y tecnología: La poesía digital en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras. Editorial Comares.

Disney, D. (2014). Introduction. In D. Disney (Ed.), Exploring Second Language Creative Writing: Beyond Babel (pp. 1–10). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/lal.19.001int

Doshi, A. R., & Hauser, O. P. (2024). Generative AI enhances individual creativity but reduces the collective diversity of novel content. Science Advances, 10(28). https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn5290

Emerson, N. (2024). AI-enhanced collaborative story writing in the EFL classroom. Technology in Language Teaching and Learning, 6(3). https://doi.org/10.29140/tltl.v6n3.1764

Gulzira, M. (2023). Integrating Educational Drama in Teaching EFL. Current Research Journal of Pedagogics, 4(01), 68–80. https://doi.org/10.37547/pedagogics-crjp-04-01-11

Holmes, N. (2018). Engaging with assessment: Increasing student engagement through continuous assessment. Active Learning in Higher Education, 19(1), 23–34. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787417723230

Hooda, M., Chauhan, S., & Gupta, R. (2022). AI in education: Enhancing student learning and development. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 19(1), 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-021-00268-8

Kabeer, A., Bhat, R. A., Antony, S., & Tramboo, I. A. (2025). Enhancing Creative Writing Skills in Secondary School Students through Prompt Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. Forum for Linguistic Studies, 7(3), 800–815. https://doi.org/10.30564/fls.v7i3.8511

Kantosalo, A., & Riihiaho, S. (2019). Quantifying co-creative writing experiences. Digital Creativity, 30, 23 - 38.

Kaşkaya, A., & Ateş, Ş. (2025). The effect of artificial intelligence-supported visualization applications on students' writing disposition in the creative writing process. Journal of Pedagogical Research, 9(2), 5-21. https://doi.org/10.33902/JPR.202531916

Kubokawa, J. M. (2023). The multilingual poetry task: Innovating L2 writing pedagogy in the secondary classroom. Journal of Second Language Writing, 61, 101039. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jslw.2023.101039

LaMear, R., & von Gillern, S. (2025). “AI Is Like 50% Good and 50% Bad”: Exploring the Strengths and Challenges of AI in the Elementary Writing Classroom Read Teach, 79: e70014. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.70014

Lin, H.-C. K. (2025). Writing Is Coding: When Writing Becomes the Starting Point for AI Cross-Media Learning and Narrative, International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design, 15(1), 1-23

Maley. (2019). Creative writing for language learners (and teachers) British Council. https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/understanding-learners/articles/creative-writing-language

Mcguire, J., De Cremer, D., & van de Cruys, T. (2024). Establishing the importance of co-creation and self-efficacy in creative collaboration with artificial intelligence. Scientific reports, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69423-2

Niloy, A. C., Akter, S., Sultana, N., Sultana, J., & Rahman, S. I. U. (2024). Is Chatgpt a menace for creative writing ability? An experiment. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 40(2), 919–930. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcal.12929

Nurlaela, N., Ilham, M. J., & Lisabe, C. M. (2022). The Effects of Storyjumper on Narrative Writing Ability of EFL Learners in Higher Education. Jurnal Educatio, 8(4), 1641–1647.

Pellas, N. (2023). The Effects of Generative AI Platforms on Undergraduates’ Narrative Intelligence and Writing Self-Efficacy. Education Sciences, 13(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13111155

Rettberg, S. (2019). Electronic Literature. Leonardo.

Révauger, G., & Rident, F. (2025). ‘I, too’, shall have to prompt? A study of EFL students and their unmonitored use of GenAI in the completion of an imitation task in poetry. Alsic-Apprentissage des langues et systems d’ information et de communication, 28(1).

Rodríguez, C. C., & Romero, C. N. (2023). Digital storytelling in primary education: A comparison of already-made resources and story-creation tools to improve English as a foreign language. In La educación lectora: Ciencia para la sociedad (p. 387). Octaedro.

Sánchez Iglesias, J. J. (2020). La Escritura Creativa en Español LE/L2. In Lingüística textual y enseñanza del español LE/L2 (pp. 246–263). Routledge.

Saum-Pascual, A. (2017). Teaching Electronic Literature as Digital Humanities: A Proposal. Digital Humanities Quarterly, 011(3).

Seo, J.-Y. (2024). Exploring the Educational Potential of ChatGPT: AI-Assisted Narrative Writing for EFL College Students. Language Teaching Research Quarterly, 43, 1–21.

Spiro, J. (2014). Learner and writer voices: Learners as writers and the search for authorial voice. In D. Disney (Ed.), Exploring Second Language Creative Writing: Beyond Babel (pp. 23–40). John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Thorpe, R. (2021). Teaching Creative Writing to Second Language Learners: A Guidebook. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003043492

Trujillo Sáez, F. (2025). De las promesas a los avances basados en evidencias. Revista Textos de Didáctica de La Lengua y La Literatura, 108, 45–51.

Valdiviezo, B. P. A., Jimenez, D. J. V., Martinez, R. A., & Bastidas, T. T. (2025). A Teaching Proposal Based on Chatgpt to Improve the Narrative Quality of Children’s Stories in Basic Education. Revista Universidad Y Sociedad, 17(3).

Wang, S. B., Zhi, E., & Liu, F. (2025). The Impact of Generative AI on Chinese Poetry Instruction: Enhancing Students’ Learning Interest, Collaboration, and Writing Ability. International Journal of Online Pedagogy and Course Design, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.4018/IJOPCD.375626

Woo, D. J., Guo, K., & Salas-Pilco, S. Z. (2024). Writing creative stories with AI: learning designs for secondary school students. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2024.2384884

Woo, D. J., Susanto, H., Yeung, C. H., Guo, K., & Fung, A. K. Y. (2024). Exploring AI-Generated text in student writing: How does AI help? Language Learning & Technology, 28(2), 183–209. https://doi.org/10.10125/73577

Woo, D. J., Wang, Y., Susanto, H., & Guo, K. (2023). Understanding English as a Foreign Language Students’ Idea Generation Strategies for Creative Writing With Natural Language Generation Tools. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 61(7), 1464-1482. https://doi.org/10.1177/07356331231175999

Zhao, D. (2024). The impact of AI-enhanced natural language processing tools on writing proficiency: An analysis of language precision, content summarization, and creative writing facilitation. Education and Information Technologies, 30, 8055–8086 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-13145-5