The current paper examines the Arab EFL teacher view on the application of AI-based chatbots as a method of aiding writing instruction. It explores pedagogy, didactic difficulties and ethics. The overall aim is to clarify the perception that teachers have of AI chatbots as a useful tool in the writing process and to find out to what degree these perceptions are reflected in instructional decision-making and classroom behaviors. A quantitative study was conducted using a structured questionnaire that was given to forty Arab EFL teachers, using a sequential explanatory mixed-method design. To elaborate and contextualize the survey results, qualitative enquiry was implemented through semi-structured interviews with twelve teachers. Findings have shown that educators tend to perceive AI chatbots as effective complementary instruments to generate ideas, provide linguistic support, and initial feedback. However, there were also major concerns related to the quality of AI-generated feedback, the tendency to overuse automatics by students, the problem of academic integrity, and the lack of uniform preparedness of institutions and technology infrastructure. The results also indicate that teachers use mediated instructional practices, such as guided scaffolding, staged instruction, AI literacy instruction, and verification-based writing activities to alleviate these issues. The current research highlights the fact that successful and conscientious implementation of AI in EFL writing classrooms is largely reliant on teacher mediation and not independent chatbots.
