The Role of Grammarly in Saudi EFL Writing

Students’ Perceptions of Its Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Overreliance

Bibliographic Data

ID17818541
AuthorsAhmed Mohammed Ahmed Abdullah Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Abdullah (Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Publication date2026-03-25
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFWU Journal of Social Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1995-1272
PublisherShaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University Peshawar, Pakistan (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.51709/19951272/spring2026/10
OpenAlexW7154262873
LanguageEN
References cited32

The rapid adoption of AI writing assistants such as Grammarly in education has influenced how English language learners approach writing tasks.By providing automated feedback on linguistic errors, including mechanics (spelling, punctuation, and capitalization), grammar, and style, these tools may help learners improve writing accuracy, reduce cognitive load, and write more efficiently.However, excessive reliance on such tools is a cause for concern.This study investigated Saudi male preparatory-year EFL students' perceptions of Grammarly at Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University (n = 61).A validated questionnaire was used in a cross-sectional design to collect data on perceived effectiveness in correcting writing mechanics (spelling, capitalization, and punctuation), perceived efficiency, limitations, and overreliance.The findings indicated that most students perceived Grammarly as useful in correcting writing mechanics, particularly spelling (85.2%), capitalization (78.7%), and punctuation (68.9%).In addition, 68.8% of students agreed that Grammarly saved time and effort.Responses regarding overreliance were mixed: 37.7% indicated high overreliance on Grammarly, whereas 62.3% reported low/no overreliance.Spearman's rho showed no significant association between perceived usefulness and overreliance ( = .105,p = .419).These findings suggest that Grammarly can be integrated into EFL writing instruction as a scaffold to support writing mechanics, provided that its use is guided in ways that also promote critical engagement and learner autonomy

Capitalization · Cognition · English language · Perception · Punctuation · Spelling · Writing assessment · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Second Language Acquisition and Learning · Writing and Handwriting Education

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