5 prompts to give Chat GPT if you are teaching a language

You may have faced challenges in delivering practical lessons as an online tutor. One of the challenges I faced was fatigue during my hours with students, which led me to stop teaching online in October 2022. However, Chat GPT has re-energized my lessons and is boosting my performance as a tutor by at least 5-ish times. In this post, I'll share some use cases of this tool for online tutors and, at the end of the post, provide a list of prompts that can be used with the technology.

Improving student engagement:

Chat GPT can simulate real-life conversations with students, making learning more engaging and fun. It also generates conversation prompts that encourage students to practice their speaking skills, keeping the conversation flowing and engaging.

An excellent prompt for improving student engagement is to generate a dialogue that provides students with a natural and fun way to practice their pronunciation. While I had material in advance, in my lessons, I still created various dialogues live based on things I was learning about my student.

Strategy:

This AI-powered tool can help with curriculum planning. You can quickly create a personalized curriculum for a student based on the information you gather during the first lesson. Then, by taking practical notes, you can convert them into a lesson plan with ease.

An excellent prompt that can help with lesson planning is to generate a 90 days plan of action based on the current level of the student and the desired outcome.

For example, suppose you have a new student who wants to learn Italian for business purposes. In that case, you can generate a list of typical Italian business terms or create a dialogue between a client and a sales representative. However, if he/she changes her mind, adapting the curriculum becomes more painless.

Storytelling:

A great use case is writing short stories. You can build a story that addresses a specific need fast.

For example, I recently created a story about Raddoppiopoli, a town where double consonants must be pronounced correctly. The point was for my student to practice double consonants in Italian, a gnarly challenge for many Italian learners.

Reducing fatigue:

As a stroke survivor, fatigue is my lifelong companion.

A great use case is generating or modifying a lesson plan on the go.

Taking the cognitive load off prep makes me more engaged with the student. And since the tutor's energy can massively change the outcome of an hour, it's all worth it.

In conclusion, natural language generation technology is valuable for online tutors. With its numerous use cases, including improving student engagement, enhancing personalized learning, providing language practice, and creating interactive content, this technology can help you overcome teaching challenges and provide practical and successful teaching. I use this tool on the Italki platform, which I highly recommend if you're looking for a great platform to connect with students worldwide. If you want to join Italki as a teacher or learner, sign up using?my referral link?to get started. Alternatively, you can?contact me directly?to sign up for Ai-powered Italian lessons (I promise to do a better video before April 2023 is finished - I'm very camera-shy). I hope this post has been helpful, and I wish you all the best in your teaching endeavours.

A final reminder

When using Chat GPT, it's important to remember that technology is not a replacement for human interaction and feedback. It's meant to augment you, not replace you. So use it with that purpose in mind.

Now, a list of five helpful prompts:

1. Role-play dialogues: "Generate a role-play dialogue between two people, one who is a native speaker of the language being taught and one who is a beginner. The dialogue should be centred around a specific topic or situation and include common phrases and vocabulary related to that topic."
2. Vocabulary quizzes: "Generate a vocabulary quiz for intermediate-level learners on a specific topic. The quiz should include various question types, such as matching, multiple choice, and fill in the blank, and should test learners' knowledge of both spoken and written vocabulary."
3. Cultural context exercises: "Generate an exercise for learners to practice using vocabulary in a cultural context. For example, create a prompt that asks learners to describe a popular holiday or festival in the target language, including traditions, foods, and activities associated with the event."
4. Listening comprehension exercises: "Create a listening comprehension exercise for beginner-level learners. The exercise should include a short audio clip of a native speaker speaking on a topic related to the learners' interests, with questions to test their comprehension of the content."
5. Writing practice prompts: "Generate a writing prompt for intermediate-level learners to practice writing in the target language. The prompt should ask learners to write a short paragraph on a specific topic, using appropriate vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structure. Provide feedback on their writing and encourage them to revise their work."