# Exploring EFL students' prompt engineering in human-AI story writing: an Activity Theory perspective

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.01798 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01798/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 43 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Jun 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Pre-train, Prompt, and Predict: A Systematic Survey of Prompting Methods in Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.13586/) (2021)
- [Large Language Models Are Human-Level Prompt Engineers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01910/) (2022)
- [A Prompt Pattern Catalog to Enhance Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.11382/) (2023)
- [Prompt Programming for Large Language Models: Beyond the Few-Shot Paradigm](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.07350/) (2021)
- [CoAuthor: Designing a Human-AI Collaborative Writing Dataset for Exploring Language Model Capabilities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.06796/) (2022)
- [Sparks: Inspiration for Science Writing using Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.07640/) (2021)
- [Interactive and Visual Prompt Engineering for Ad-hoc Task Adaptation with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.07852/) (2022)
- [Creative Writing with an AI-Powered Writing Assistant: Perspectives from Professional Writers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.05030/) (2022)
- [How to Prompt? Opportunities and Challenges of Zero- and Few-Shot Learning for Human-AI Interaction in Creative Applications of Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.01390/) (2022)
- [Prompting AI Art: An Investigation into the Creative Skill of Prompt Engineering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.13534/) (2023)
- [Understanding EFL Student Idea Generation Strategies for Creative Writing with NLG Tools](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.01484/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [The EAP-AIAS: Adapting the AI Assessment Scale for English for Academic Purposes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.01075/) (2024)
- [Exploring EFL Secondary Students' AI-generated Text Editing While Composition Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17041/) (2025)
- [Product vs. Process: Exploring EFL Students' Editing of AI-Generated Text for Expository Writing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21073/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This study applies Activity Theory to investigate how English as a foreign language (EFL) students prompt generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools during short story writing. Sixty-seven Hong Kong secondary school students created generative-AI tools using open-source language models and wrote short stories with them. The study collected and analyzed the students' generative-AI tools, short stories, and written reflections on their conditions or purposes for prompting. The research identified three main themes regarding the purposes for which students prompt generative-AI tools during short story writing: a lack of awareness of purposes, overcoming writer's block, and developing, expanding, and improving the story. The study also identified common characteristics of students' activity systems, including the sophistication of their generative-AI tools, the quality of their stories, and their school's overall academic achievement level, for their prompting of generative-AI tools for the three purposes during short story writing. The study's findings suggest that teachers should be aware of students' purposes for prompting generative-AI tools to provide tailored instructions and scaffolded guidance. The findings may also help designers provide differentiated instructions for users at various levels of story development when using a generative-AI tool.