Teaching skills

Using AI to Adapt English Speaking Tasks for Mixed-Ability ESL Classrooms

What is a mixed ability class? The simplest definition is “a class with more than one student.” Unless you’re teaching one-to-one, you teach mixed abilities. Having students at different levels in the same class makes it difficult for everyone to take part. Students who find a class too hard will give up and do something else. Higher level… Teaching skills

Assessment for Learning with AI Text Generators

Most of the time, when we think about assessment, we think about grades, tests, and final scores. But what if assessment wasn’t just about measuring learning, but actually improving it? That’s the idea behind Assessment for Learning, or ‘AfL’ for short. In AfL, teachers use assessments to guide students and help them improve. Students are… Teaching skills

Adapting ESL Reading Activities with AI

Someone, somewhere, wrote your coursebook. They don’t know you, they’ve never met your students, and they might not even be familiar with your country. This means the content of your coursebook wasn’t made specifically for your class. It's more like a store-bought suit - close enough, but not a perfect fit. It probably needs a few tweaks. In this… Teaching skills

Teaching Pronunciation with AI

Pronunciation sometimes gets called “the Cinderella of language teaching” (Kelly, 1969:87). It’s overlooked and undervalued compared to its siblings, grammar and vocabulary. Teacher training programs rarely address it in depth, and coursebooks either avoid it or present activities that don’t match your students’ needs. After all, coursebook… Teaching skills

Teaching and Learning Vocabulary with AI

In this blog, we’ll look at how to use AI to help with vocabulary learning and teaching. So much of language learning is about learning vocabulary. Regardless of your students’ level, well-formed sentences mean nothing without the right words to fill them. For better or worse, vocabulary is often taught in the order, present, practice, produce.… Teaching skills

Using AI for English Roleplay Activities

Roleplay is one of the most common ways to practice speaking, especially at higher levels. Roleplays can bridge the gap between the classroom and real-world communication. By encouraging students to be someone else, roleplays can allow students to be themselves - solving problems, driving a hard bargain or simply having fun. All this builds… Teaching skills

Creating Worksheets with AI

Creating engaging and effective worksheets is a time-consuming process. Even if you download worksheets from a website, the process of searching for something suitable can be as onerous as making your own. In this blog post, we'll look at a different solution: using AI to generate worksheets. As well as saving you time, AI can add interesting… Teaching skills

Using AI in ESL Classrooms

In the summer of 2023, I ran a one-day workshop for recent graduates on writing effective emails (in English). Near the end of the day, I asked the participants to summarise what they had learned in an email. I walked around the training room, looking at what the students were typing and noticed one participant carefully copying and pasting from… Teaching skills

Creating Flashcards and Teaching Materials with AI Image Generators

I can’t imagine my life without AI. I use Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude every day. AI text generators let me write better and faster than I could before. But AI image generators are even more amazing. They let me create things which I could previously never have made myself. Now, all of us can be artists, cartoonists and graphic designers. But if… Teaching skills

Using AI for Assignments & Homework: Strategies for Students and Teachers

“How can I stop my students using AI or ChatGPT for homework?” That was the one question I was bombarded with in 2023. It’s understandable that teachers are, or were, worried about AI. Every time a disruptive new technology comes along, there is a fear that some students will use it to gain an unfair advantage. Over time, things change. No one… Teaching skills

15 Map Activities for ESL Classes

You've probably used maps before in English classes. Many beginner-level coursebooks include map-based activities for giving directions. But there is much more we can use maps for than simply giving directions. Maps can promote critical thinking skills, such as analyzing and interpreting information. Maps can also be used to teach students about… Teaching skills

How to use AI to Generate Student Feedback

In 2022, Education Week published an article about how teachers spend their time. They listed over a dozen activities done by teachers on a weekly basis. The number one most time-consuming task? Giving students written feedback. What’s more, the authors noted how teachers spend their time fuels the ever-falling job satisfaction in the profession.… Teaching skills, All categories