EFL students’ perceptions of Google Translate use in English writing

Abstract

The rapid advancement of information technology has transformed language learning environments, with machine translation tools - particularly Google Translate (GT) - becoming ubiquitous among university students. This study investigates the perceptions of English-major students at a regional university in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, toward the use of GT to improve their English writing skills. Employing a descriptive quantitative design, data were collected from 36 students via a 20-item Likert-scale questionnaire developed through literature review and expert consultation (Cronbach’s α = 0.905) and analyzed using SPSS 27.0. Findings reveal that students use GT frequently and perceive it positively, particularly for saving time and improving sentence clarity. Moderate dependency levels were observed, including a tendency to draft in Vietnamese before translating and to rarely revise GT outputs. Despite high awareness of GT’s limitations - including inaccurate translation, unnatural phrasing, and the inability to replace individual competence - this awareness showed no significant correlation with students’ intention to reduce usage. Usage frequency differed significantly across academic years but not between genders. These findings highlight a notable cognition–behavior gap, underscoring the need for pedagogically guided integration of machine translation tools in EFL writing instruction. The study aims to inform context-sensitive pedagogical strategies for responsible GT use in Vietnamese tertiary education.