CHATGPT for adaptive language learning
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CHATGPT for adaptive language learning

Hi everyone ?? A few weeks ago, I talked about the utility of chatgpt as a personal assistant, and I promised to shed light on some use cases of chatgpt for language teachers. Today I will share with you a use case for language teachers to make their writing lessons far more adaptive.


CHATGPT for ESP

As an English teacher at a vocational school I often try to meet my student's interest by creating English assignments for specific purposes (ESP), such as handling customer complaints (hospitality), writing incident reports (security) or writing a review about a certain experience or product.

You can use the following structure to improve adaptive language learning:

  1. Ask CHATGPT to create an assignment: 'Can you create an assignment for students who study to become security officers, and have to write a incident report on A2 level with a word count of 250-300 words?'
  2. Upload the written assignment in the CHATGPT box and ask: 'Can you provide me feedback on A2 level for my incident report?'
  3. Ask CHATGPT to structure the feedback into learning outcomes: 'Can you formulate learning outcomes of the feedback provided/ Can you provide a learning strategy to work on........?'
  4. Choose one of the learning outcomes and ask CHATGPT to create an assignment in which the student can practice one of the specific learning outcomes: 'Can you create an assignment in which I can practice '.......insert learning outcome here ....'?

These steps can be used in a different order, but I found this the right one. From assignment to feedback to follow up to feedback again. This can help students to gradually work on their writing skills and improve them as they go.


I find it very tough to find inspiration to create tailor made exercises for their specific vocation. However, since I met CHATGPT (I refer to it as a person) it has made my life a lot easier, and my lesson material very dynamic. I let CHATGPT create numerous types of assignments for my students, and I can play around with the difficulty of the assignments as well. I'll show an example:

'Students who study to become a security officer often have to practice writing incident reports, as this can be one of their exam assignments, and more importantly, it's something they have to do on a daily basis when they graduate.'

I asked CHATGPT to help me to think of an assignment that can help the students to practice their writing skills, specifically for writing incident reports. I used the following prompt for him/her/they to start:

Could you create a writing assignment for the security education in which security officers must write a report about an incident that occurred in your city. The assignment must be on A2 level, and the word count must be between 250 and 300 words.

Here is what CHATGPT thought of:

  1. Ask CHATGPT to cerate an assignment

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A really well-thought assignment in which the students are required to write an incident report, and coherent with their theory lessons (looking at the 5 points they have to integrate in the assignment). Students now have a clear assignment in line with their future work, and if I need another one, I just change the prompt slightly (or give chatgpt the same assignment which sometimes gives different results; interesting too).

What about feedback/forward?

Any language teacher knows that none to little of their students are on the same level, and most of their students require different approaches according to the level of English they have to improve. Whereas some would need feedback on their grammar use, others might need to focus on interpunction or on academic writing skills in order to improve that last bit. When it comes to writing, we usually assess the student's work ourselves. It used to take me forever to go through all reports and grant the students personal learning goals according to their performance.

Nowadays, I ask my students to use CHATGPT to assess their writing work. I give them the following prompt so chatgpt knows what to do:

'Can you assess my incident rapport and give me feedback on my written work?'

After that question, the student is asked by CHATGPT to upload / copy+paste their written work in the chatbox, and BOOM, it starts coaching.

Here is an example of feedback on written work

2. Upload the written assignment in the CHATGPT box

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3. Ask CHATGPT to structure the feedback into learning outcomes

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4. Can you create an exercise to practice 1?

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Now the student can easily work on their own performance while the teacher is coaching and helping the students to work out their feedback and help them creating a strategy for them.

CHATGPT can help us teachers to become coaches as the work is being done for us, and we can use our human creativity and interpersonal skills to adapt CHATGPT's feedback and strategies to fit our learner.

More to follow next week - 'how CHATGPT / AI can make you more human!'

Derren de Jong

I help people spend less on video hosting | Managing Director @ kinescope.io | Board of Directors | Non-executive Director | Board Advisor |

1 年

Important to keep in mind is that in essence GPT is a language model. So it is more concerned with saying what sounds right, than what is actually factually correct. A lot of times these two are the same, so no problem. But sometimes they are not.

Rufus Baas

Immersive Strategy, Technology & Talent Development

1 年

Thanks for sharing Erik, great example of utility for teachers and students. Would love to hear how your students respond to this method!

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