Webinar Replay: AI in Language Teaching (& New AI Newsletter!)
Integrating AI into Language Teaching and Learning
I presented a webinar on 19th May, with Trinity College London.
If you attended, many thanks. If you missed it, watch it here (and look below to download the slides!).
00:00 Introduction
05:42 Overview
Part 1: Definition and terms related to AI
Part 2: How AI can save time and energy for teachers
Part 3: How AI can help students learn better outside the classroom
Part 4: The ongoing AI debate in education and future developments
07:03 What is AI? Some definitions
AI refers to technology or software that helps machines perform tasks almost as well or even better than humans.
AGI or artificial general intelligence refers to machines that can think better than human beings across a wide range of tasks.
Machine learning is a subset of AI where a computer or program is programmed to learn by itself and improve over time.
Large language model or LLM is a machine learning model trained on human language and huge text data sets.
Text-to-text AI tools like Chat GPT are the most used and useful for teaching and learning.
12:40 AI for Teaching
Teachers spend around 30 hours on tasks outside of the classroom every week.
Chat GPT can assist with lesson planning, brainstorming, editing, and finding/recycling materials.
Other areas where Chat GPT can help include grading, admin, professional development, and collaboration with colleagues
18:10 ChatGPT Generates Lesson Plans & Materials
Provide variables for a One-Shot prompt to generate personalized lesson plans
Chat GPT 4 produces better lesson plans for task-based learning
Multi-shot prompts ask follow-up questions to get information, while one-shot prompts create a lesson plan all at once.
Chat GPT can also be used to edit existing lesson plans, rearrange content, and create tables or quizzes.
Chat GPT can be used to generate materials, including creating matching curriculum or course book content, and even creating Choose Your Own Adventure games for students.
Chat GPT can replicate text-based materials that can fit on a worksheet or a handout.
30:08 AI for Grading, Professional Development, Data & Admin
Chat GPT can generate feedback for written student work, create rubrics, and handle spreadsheet data for class reports.
Teachers can use Chat GPT to grade papers, write student and class reports, and summarize long documents.
Chat GPT can also assist with generating ideas, creating checklists, and recommending off-the-beaten-track destinations.
Finally, teachers can use Chat GPT to turn static PDFs and research articles into conversation partners by asking questions and getting follow-up answers.
45:15 AI for Students
Chat GPT can help students with learning vocabulary, grammar, admin, and exam preparation, as well as improve their listening and speaking skills through a personalized conversation partner.
Students can type in a word and get its meaning and examples, or ask for help with using a word or grammar in a sentence.
Chat GPT can be used with plugins for speech recognition and reading, and can remember what vocabulary and grammar students need to practice.
Students and language teachers can use the personalised conversation partner for free to practice speaking and listening in a foreign language.
52:46 AI Debate
55:47 Future of AI
Teachers can invest more time in responding to students and meeting their needs
However, there are concerns about becoming too dependent on AI and losing creativity
OpenAI predicts that around 20% of jobs, including teaching, may be affected by AI in the future
Fast iteration & plugins for chat GPT will enable it to buy and sell on your behalf
Integration with Google, Microsoft and Adobe will bring AI to all of their products
Catch-up policies for education will embrace or ban GPT plagiarism detection
AI will become easier to use over time, but adapting to the changes will be crucial
1:01:29 Resources
Webinar Slides
If you’d like a copy of the slides, with prompts for ChatGPT, you download them here:
If you’d like to stay updated with the latest AI teaching developments (and all things language teaching), sign up for my free, twice-monthly newsletter.
Good luck, and good teaching!
If you liked this article, you’ll love my books:
📝 Lesson Planning for Language Teachers - Plan better, faster, and stress-free (4.5⭐, 155 ratings).
👩🎓 Essential Classroom Management - Develop calm students and a classroom full of learning (4.5⭐, 30 ratings).
🏰 Storytelling for Language Teachers - Use the power of storytelling to transform your lessons (4.5⭐, 10 ratings).
💭 Reflective Teaching Practice Journal - Improve your teaching in five minutes daily (4.5⭐, 13 ratings).