Teaching English Toolbox
AI, Coding, Speech-to-text, etc.
- Using AI for generating images: One idea is for learners to write down on a slip of paper what they would like the draw and then draw it themselves. Then, they can type in the text to DallE and see what that produces and compare the pictures. Furthermore, adding a style, e.g. "surrealism" can be really interesting. Do you have any other ideas?
- Using Chatbots: How can you use these in your classroom in short sequences that get learners to focus on accuracy? on fluency? What prompts can you use to focus the feedback on what you are focusing on in your teaching? There are issues such as many of the programs are not sensitive enough to correct "poor" pronunciation, but at the same time, perhaps that doesn't matter - does it?
- Machine translation: The author of this page uses machine translation in the following way (she is a non-native speaker of German): She writes her text in German. She puts it into DEEPL and translates it back into English (her L1). Then she corrects the English and re-translates back to German. Is this a good process? How can you make the learning more sustainable?
- Text to Speech - Speech to Text: How can we take advantage of text-to-speech, speech-to-text and voice recognition programs to allow our learners to have more speaking time?
- Many ethical considerations: If learners can learn to speak via these technologies, and their work can also be automatically corrected through other technologies, then what is the point of concrete instruction? Should teachers and learners generate text with these tools? Does simplifying text really help learners learn language or should working with an original source be the aim?
- Tools: What do you know about and how could they be used "intelligently"?
It is difficult to say anymore what is just CALL (Computer Assisted Language Learning) and what is generative Artificial Intelligence - nowadays it is hard to teach without AI! Throughout this toolbox, you will find links and ideas with numerous tools. You see, for instance, an academic text turned into a chatty dialogue in the section on Communicative Language Teaching. You can find examples of simplifying text from authentic to A2 and chatbots with relatively good correction functions listed on the resources padlet. This page is dedicated to the "geekier" of those things and invites you to go even further into generative AI and into teaching Code in English.
General considerations and background information
- Please be aware of the ethical aspects involved in using AI and read about the general issues (for example in this report here from MIT).
- Consider using Public Domain materials, e.g. from Project Gutenberg as the basis for any text work.
- Please refer to the PHZH's wiki for more in-depth exploration.
- https://esllibrary.com/blog/english-with-voice-assistants
- Podcast 350: A deep dive into natural language processing and speech to text systems
- Learning a Subword Inventory Jointly with End-to-End Automatic Speech Recognition
- The Benefits of Speech-to-Text Technology in All Classrooms
- Human Perspectives on Spoken Human-Machine Interaction
Language Teaching
- Edmett, A., N. Ichaporia, H. Crompton, and R. Crichton. 2023. Artificial Intelligence and English Language Teaching: Preparing for the Future. London: British Council.
- Peachey, N. (2023). ChatGPT in the Language Classroom. PeacheyPublications Ltd.
- https://esllibrary.com/blog/english-with-voice-assistants
- Peachy, N., and R. Crichton. 2024. AI Activities and Resources for English Language Teachers. London: British Council.
Varia
- Peaksay (pig Latin for "speak": https://www.peaksay.com
- https://learningapps.org/ - has excellent text-to-speech options for FR and EN.
- Animal Antics
- https://www.readingrockets.org/article/speech-recognition-learning
- https://www.sayitlabs.com/
- https://www.gamestolearnenglish.com/speak-easy
Chatboxes and Speaking Practice
There are new tools cropping up on the market every day! As it is hard to keep up with the advancements and links and tools change constantly, here are just a few you can look up: TalkPal, Sensay, Socrat, Peaksay, GoogleReadAlong, ReadM.
- Play with Mizou!
- Microsoft has products called Reading Coach and Speaking Progress which have sophisticated algorithms.
Machine Translation
- Babylonia Issue on Vocabulary and Digitalization : There are many articles here on the topic!
- There will be a Babylonia (see above) issue on AI in Language Teaching coming out in early 2026.
Lesson Planning?
Does ChatGPT understand TBL? A little bit! You can use this document to get the general gist, but there are some issues so be sure to read the criticism and questions!!
Some useful tools
- Twee: This tool is amazing but one issue is that the questions generated do not go very deep.
- Most quizzing systems, e.g. Formative or Quizzizz have AI generators to help create questions on various topics. SUGGESTION: Write your OWN questions first and then COMPARE to what is generated. Merge the two!
- Magic School and Diffit are well loved by American teachers.
Coding
Have you ever thought about coding in English lessons? There's lots of useful language (Go To! Loop! If...Then....) and many ways to teach language through programming!
You can read Programming in Motion by Patrick Buechel (Babylonia, 2019, 3, pp. 68-75, available online here).