EFL postgraduate students’ perceptions on the use of Grammarly and peer feedback to improve their academic writing skills

Grammarly and peer feedback have recently become two evaluative approaches that are commonly used in writing classes to provide effective comments on students’ writing (Fahmi & Cahyono, 2021). However, recent studies have only examined their effectiveness on students’ writing skills, neglecting their thoughts and perceptions. To address this gap, the paper explores EFL postgraduate students’ perceptions of using Grammarly and peer feedback activities to enhance their academic writing skills. The interview approach was incorporated to collect data, using the participation of 10 EFL postgraduate students who were learning at Van Lang University. The qualitative study indicates that students feel satisfied with both approaches; however, they all claimed that although their peers take more time to complete revision, those comments are more in-depth and constructive. Grammarly is fast but sometimes inappropriate and limited. Moreover, more learners prefer peer feedback. It is highly recommended that this study serve as a database for further quantitative research on other groups of participants.