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.

翻译：本研究运用活动理论，探讨英语作为外语（EFL）学生在短篇故事写作过程中如何对生成式人工智能（AI）工具进行提示。研究对象为67名香港中学生，他们利用开源语言模型构建生成式AI工具，并借助这些工具完成短篇故事创作。研究收集并分析了学生开发的生成式AI工具、创作的故事，以及关于提示条件或目的的文字反思。研究识别出学生在短篇故事写作中对生成式AI工具进行提示的三个主要目的主题：缺乏目的意识、克服写作障碍、以及发展、扩展和改进故事。同时，研究还揭示了学生活动系统的共同特征，包括生成式AI工具的复杂程度、故事质量、以及学校整体学业水平，这些特征与学生在短篇故事写作中为实现上述三种目的而进行提示的行为相关联。研究结果表明，教师应关注学生提示生成式AI工具的目的，以便提供个性化指导和支架式支持。此外，研究发现可能有助于设计者为处于不同故事创作阶段的用户，在使用生成式AI工具时提供差异化指导。