The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Language Learners’ Critical Thinking Skills, Language Learning, And Academic Integrity

The rapid integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT into academic settings has transformed the ways students engage with learning and writing. While these tools provide efficiency, idea generation, and language support, their overuse has sparked growing concerns among educators, institutions, and researchers. This paper investigates the effects of overreliance on ChatGPT in higher education, with particular focus on three key areas: critical thinking, language learning, and academic integrity. Employing a qualitative, literature-based methodology, the study systematically reviewed peer-reviewed articles published between 2020 and 2025 from databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect. Findings indicate that frequent dependence on ChatGPT can hinder students’ development of critical thinking by encouraging cognitive offloading, superficial engagement with content, and uncritical acceptance of AI-generated information. Similarly, overreliance on the tool disrupts independent language learning, as ChatGPT often provides generic, non-personalised responses that cannot replicate authentic human interaction or address complex linguistic and cultural nuances. Furthermore, the study highlights rising academic integrity concerns, including plagiarism, blurred authorship, inequities in assessment, and the inability of current institutional frameworks to detect AI-generated work effectively. While ChatGPT offers significant potential for enhancing efficiency and supporting writing mechanics, unchecked reliance poses risks to students’ creativity, autonomy, and authentic learning. The review concludes by calling for improved AI literacy among educators and students, updated institutional policies, and further empirical research to explore long-term implications. Balancing AI use with pedagogical integrity is essential to safeguard academic development and ensure ethical adoption in education.

Artificial intelligence, excessive dependence, cognitive engagement

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