Product vs. Process: Exploring EFL Students' Editing of AI-Generated Text for Expository Writing

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Woo, David James, Yu, Yangyang, Guo, Kai, Huang, Yilin, Fung, April Ka Yeng
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Woo, David James
Yu, Yangyang
Guo, Kai
Huang, Yilin
Fung, April Ka Yeng
author_facet Woo, David James
Yu, Yangyang
Guo, Kai
Huang, Yilin
Fung, April Ka Yeng
contents Text generated by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots is increasingly used in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing contexts, yet its impact on students' expository writing process and compositions remains understudied. This research examines how EFL secondary students edit AI-generated text. Exploring editing behaviors in their expository writing process and in expository compositions, and their effect on human-rated scores for content, organization, language, and overall quality. Participants were 39 Hong Kong secondary students who wrote an expository composition with AI chatbots in a workshop. A convergent design was employed to analyze their screen recordings and compositions to examine students' editing behaviors and writing qualities. Analytical methods included qualitative coding, descriptive statistics, temporal sequence analysis, human-rated scoring, and multiple linear regression analysis. We analyzed over 260 edits per dataset, and identified two editing patterns: one where students refined introductory units repeatedly before progressing, and another where they quickly shifted to extensive edits in body units (e.g., topic and supporting sentences). MLR analyses revealed that the number of AI-generated words positively predicted all score dimensions, while most editing variables showed minimal impact. These results suggest a disconnect between students' significant editing effort and improved composition quality, indicating AI supports but does not replace writing skills. The findings highlight the importance of genre-specific instruction and process-focused writing before AI integration. Educators should also develop assessments valuing both process and product to encourage critical engagement with AI text.
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id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_21073
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Product vs. Process: Exploring EFL Students' Editing of AI-Generated Text for Expository Writing
Woo, David James
Yu, Yangyang
Guo, Kai
Huang, Yilin
Fung, April Ka Yeng
Computation and Language
Human-Computer Interaction
Text generated by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots is increasingly used in English as a foreign language (EFL) writing contexts, yet its impact on students' expository writing process and compositions remains understudied. This research examines how EFL secondary students edit AI-generated text. Exploring editing behaviors in their expository writing process and in expository compositions, and their effect on human-rated scores for content, organization, language, and overall quality. Participants were 39 Hong Kong secondary students who wrote an expository composition with AI chatbots in a workshop. A convergent design was employed to analyze their screen recordings and compositions to examine students' editing behaviors and writing qualities. Analytical methods included qualitative coding, descriptive statistics, temporal sequence analysis, human-rated scoring, and multiple linear regression analysis. We analyzed over 260 edits per dataset, and identified two editing patterns: one where students refined introductory units repeatedly before progressing, and another where they quickly shifted to extensive edits in body units (e.g., topic and supporting sentences). MLR analyses revealed that the number of AI-generated words positively predicted all score dimensions, while most editing variables showed minimal impact. These results suggest a disconnect between students' significant editing effort and improved composition quality, indicating AI supports but does not replace writing skills. The findings highlight the importance of genre-specific instruction and process-focused writing before AI integration. Educators should also develop assessments valuing both process and product to encourage critical engagement with AI text.
title Product vs. Process: Exploring EFL Students' Editing of AI-Generated Text for Expository Writing
topic Computation and Language
Human-Computer Interaction
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.21073