Introduction to AI (for EFL)

Here are some basic criteria for thinking about AI tools in EFL instruction: 

• If an AI tool motivates students to consume and/or produce English, then great! On the other hand, if it replaces the students' linguistic functions (i.e., does all the thinking, analysis, and understanding for them), then why are we using this particular tool? 

• If it demands massive amounts of time creating interesting graphics, but minimal use of English, is this an efficient tool for our EFL students?

A.I. and EFL (Required)

While waiting around for the possible extinction of human beings caused by A.I. (or the climate crisis, or a nuclear holocaust), we still have to teach our students - whether in class, online, or a combination of the two. Hopefully, the governments of the world will learn how to regulate A.I. and there will be many future generations of humans that need high-quality education to improve the world and avoid self-destruction.

Since November 2022, many EFL teachers have been trying to find ways of creatively using A.I. tools.  We have to refrain from mindlessly accepting the output of L.L.M. A.I. and have to attempt to teach our students to do the same. While much of the output can indeed be valuable and time-saving, we have to maintain and improve our own creativity. We should not blindly accept material scrapped from data sets, reorganized, and presented as authoritative text (or images) - particularly when dealing with facts. Fiction and other non-factual material are probably easier to accept without checking them. In addition, we probably should not have our students spend relatively unproductive time refining prompts to create A.I.-generated images. (Discussing and writing about A.I.-generated images would be much more productive!)  We should be striving to maximize our limited classroom time with truly productive activity (i.e., the consumption and production of English at the proper linguistic level as well as relevant grammar and vocabulary instruction). One 2023 research project (OPTIONAL), focusing on using AI chatbots to improve writing skills in a Korean EFL elementary school classroom, showed statistically significant gains by the experimental group over the traditional control group. No doubt there will soon be a tsunami of research examining the advantages and disadvantages of using AI in EFL/ESL teaching and learning.

Here are some conceptual examples of when such AI tools could be genuinely be useful in EFL:

1. Use A.I. tools to save you time while you are creating your lessons. We will be looking at a few dedicated tools, below, but the general all-purposed A.I. chatbots can also do this. For example, 

• if you were looking for songs that have verbs in the irregular past tense (or any other grammatical structure, lexical items, or content), have an A.I. chatbot save you time searching for the song. You could use something like the following prompt:

I'm interested in finding songs in the English language that have a large number of verbs in the irregular past tense. Please create a chart with ten songs using the irregular past tense. The first column in the chart, on the left, should have an ascending number. There should be 15 rows, corresponding to 15 songs. The second column, entitled "Name", should have the name of the song. The third column, entitled "Singer," should have the singer(s) of the song. The fourth column, entitled "Number of Different Verbs," should have the number different verbs in the irregular past tense. The fifth column, entitled "Percentage," will have the percentage of irregular verbs as a part of all the verbs in the song. The sixth column, entitled "Verbs," should list all the verbs that appear in the irregular past tense in that particular song, i.e., the one in that row. Please list the rows in descending order of column four, i.e., the number of different verbs used in the song.

Once again, please remember that A.I. chatbots often make factual mistakes! But there are many cases that the less-than-perfect data that is returned will help you save time. 

1. • Or, have the A.I. tool create a text, specifying the length and the CEFR linguistic level. Specify the lexical items and desired grammatical structures to appear in the text. Specify that these lexical items and grammatical structures should appear in bold letters. (If you are not satisfied with the text, specify how to improve it. Continue your dialogue with the A.I. tool until you are satisfied with the text.) 

   • Then ask the A.I. tool to create a specified number of multiple-choice questions about the content of the text. 

     1. Specify how many possible answers there should be in each question. 

     2. Specify that each question should be in a numbered list and that each set of possible answers should in a lettered list, indented under each question.  Make sure to specify that the correct answers should appear randomly in the list of answers. 

     3. Then ask the A.I. tool to create a table with the lexical items, which you had specified, in the cells in the left-hand column. Specify that the lexical items should appear alphabetical order, with a definition of each lexical item, at the appropriate CEFR linguistic level, in the corresponding cell in the right-hand column. Have the A.I. tool list the definitions in numerical order.

     4. After you get a suitable table (which you may have to ask the AI tool to revise until you are satisfied), have the A.I. tool repeat the table, but delete the words in the left-hand column, leaving empty cells in the left-hand column and the numbered definitions in the right-hand column. 

        • Have stronger classes search for the missing words in the text and copy them in the proper empty cell in the left-hand column. 

        • For weaker classes, ask the AI to create a word bank, in the order each word appears in the text, separated with commas, under the table. 

     5. You can copy the text, table, and word bank (if it exists) into a WORD doc and SHARE the WORD doc with your students via a webpage, email, WhatsApp, or other digital delivery system. (Please don't kill trees by printing the exercise.) You can check the work frontally and use it as a basis for a discussion about the content, vocabulary, grammar, or whatever seems necessary.

2. Have the A.I. tool produce two (or more) texts, with the same content, but using difference genres or registers. These texts could be super-saturated with target vocabulary, target grammar, and target literary styles. In the classroom, the students could study the texts and discuss the differences.     

3. Have a graphics A.I. tool create a still image or a short video that the students could talk about or write about. (Try using Bing's "Image Creator" [using OpenAI's Dall-E technology] for a still image, Skybox for 360-degree images, and Fliki for short videos. For sure, there are many other options.)

Here are four possible images of the Keller backyard (in All My Sons), created in "Image Creator":

4. Present a class an A.I.-generated text and have the class examine the text and then improve on it. 

5. Have the students co-author a text with with an A.I. chatbot. Have the students write the first sentence and have the chatbot write the next sentence. Continue doing this until the student feels that the text is basically complete. Then ask the student to edit and improve the entire text. 

6. Using an A.I. chatbot, create (or choose) a real or fictional character for the learner to interact with, specifying the proper linguistic level. Chatting (via text or audio) with the student's favorite athlete, entertainer, etc. will probably motivate the student to consume and produce English at the appropriate linguistic level. Some A.I. tools will provide characters that will query and correct the student's English when it becomes incomprehensible. (This would achieve Krashen's hypothesis of acquiring language via comprehensible input, which predated technology-assisted language learning.)  Here's a possible prompt:

You are going to make believe that you are <name>.

We are going to have a conversation at the CEFR linguistic level of <letter and number>. I will ask you, as <name>, a question and then you, as <name>, will answer, in no more than 25 words each time. Please ask questions of me at the end of your answer, when logical.

If I have a question about the meaning of a word or grammatical structure, please answer it in very simple terms. Once again, limiting your answer to 25 words or less.

We will continue the conversation until I end it.

The default is having the above discussion with ChatGPT in textual form, but now you can click on the speaker icon and hear the ChatGPT message as well as read it.  

In addition, you can easily add "an extension" for Google Chrome to have ChatGPT recognize your voice. This means that your students witll be able to speak and listen to ChatGPT. Please watch this video to see how simple it is. Watch the entire video to get great tips about using voice-based ChatGPT. 

IMPORTANT: Make sure your prompts are clear and complete. For example, the following prompt to ChatGPT 3.5 produced fairly detailed results within 20 seconds, which included a rather traditional sentence completion exercise, role-play scenarios, a song analysis exercise for small and large groups, a board game, and structured discussions of movie snippets. 

Provide five suggestions for teaching and practicing the second conditional to a grade 9 EFL class in Israel. The students are on a B1 linguistic level on the CEFR scale.

No doubt, follow-up prompts would provide more detailed explanations for each of the general ideas. If you don't get what you want, go back and refine the prompt. (You don't have to go back to zero, just explain how you want to improve the output.) 

Using ChatGPT for Preparing Material for Other Learning Tools

Here's part 1 of Russell Standard's 24 May 2024 video about using ChatGPT 4.0 for preparing material for Quizlet. It lasts 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Here's part 2 of Russell Standard's 24 May 2024 video about using ChatGPT 4.0 for preparing material for Wordwall. It lasts 11 minutes and 17 seconds.

Dedicated Chatbot Tools

Please note that there are specific AI tools, which will present a wide range of characters [factual and fictional] as well as situational role-plays. Some of these tools allow you to create your own bots quite easily, so you can focus on pedigogical needs.  

Character.AI (READ THESE WARNINGS!!)

Character.AI was an early specific chatbot tool. It offers a variety of A.I. characters to converse with.  It has been cited as a useful tool in some of the Israeli EFL-teachers WhatsApp groups. But be careful!! 

• Some of you teach in schools that will fire you if you expose your students to some of the characters' religious or social beliefs.

• Be aware that Character AI has been accused of taking the personalities of various living people, without their permission, and repurposing those characters in ways that do not represent the actual people's opinions. While this might not be a direct danger for you as a teacher, be aware that some of these characters may be rewriting history or current events.

• And probably the most disturbing issue is the growing trend of people (and particularly teens) becoming emotionally involved with the chatbots. A Florida mother is suing Character  AI for the suicide of her 14-year old son, who had become emotionally attached to one of their characters. Here's an OPTIONAL report from NBC News from 24 October 2024.  (This is a very disturbing situation, but we teachers should be aware of "what's out there." While A.I. can offer education many advantages, there are serious problems, particularly with the near uncontrolled development of A.I.)

POE.com

Much better is POE.com, with which you can easily create A.I. chatbots for your students. In the prompt of the POE chatbot, define the linguistic level, the general area of discussion (e.g., hip-hop music, soccer, travel, Robert Frost, etc.), the length of the bot's responses, and the tone the chatbot should use. The teacher will then send a SHARING link to the student, who has to download an app (once) and create an account. Then the student can click on the original link and get to the bot.

Dr. Elena Mizrachi created a POE bot entitled "Your English Teacher" and has allowed us to use her prompt as a starting place for our bots. 

Btw, besides allowing for creating bots, POE also has two generic A.I. bots, entitled "Assistant" and "Web-Search," in addition to giving access to various general A.I. progams (ChatGPT, Claude, Dall-E, and StableDiffusion) - some for free and some for pay.

Mizou.com

Even better (but a bit more demanding) than POE, Mizou.com focuses on K-12 teachers and students. The teacher creates educational bots easily, tailor them to the specific needs of the class, and have the bots suggest a grade for the student's performance according to teacher-created rubrics (if the student has given the bot enough input).  The teacher can examine each student's interaction with the specific bot. 

The students can use the bots just by clicking on the link (as opposed to downloading and app and creating an account, as with POE) and then give their names (or pseudonyms) so the teacher can later examine the interaction with the bot.

There are excellent in-program tutorials about how to set up and use the bots. Mizou also offers a wide selection of existing educational bots created by Mizou and other teachers. 

Mizou currently is very much in Beta mode and requests feedback from teachers so the company can improve the tool. Hopefully, in the future, the improved version of Mizou will be free, or at least have some free options.

SCHOOL AI

School AI also offers free chatbots for students. Here's an OPTIONAL tutorial, narrated in Hebrew, by Hili Zavaro from late August 2024.

IMPORTANT: Once again, make sure your prompts are clear and complete. For example, the following prompt to ChatGPT 3.5 produced fairly detailed results within 20 seconds, which included a rather traditional sentence completion exercise, role-play scenarios, a song analysis exercise for small and large groups, a board game, and structured discussions of movie snippets. 

Provide five suggestions for teaching and practicing the second conditional to a grade 9 EFL class in Israel. The students are on a B1 linguistic level on the CEFR scale.

No doubt, follow-up prompts would provide more detailed explanations for each of the general ideas. If you don't get what you want, go back and refine the prompt. (You don't have to go back to zero, just explain how you want to improve the output.) 

Twee (REQUIRED !!)

Twee.com is an A.I. tool that helps English teachers quickly create pre-existing formats for learning. Watch the following 24 July 2024 Russell Stannard video, both for Twee itself (which still has a free version) and for the general concept of having A.I. tools do pre-existing teaching routines. While watching, consider at least three caveats about the use of the output of the tools: 

1. Don't forget that A.I. tools can sometimes make mistakes, so check the material before giving it to students!! 

2. Try to avoid printing and photocopying whenever possible. This will save money and trees. You can copy and present most of the exercises created in Twee (and other A.I. tools) in a Google Doc, a WORD doc, or similar digital tool. 

3. Think about how students can easily show you their work. For example, color-highlighting their answers  in order to make them stand out from the rest of the text. There are various ways students can submit their work: a shared Google Doc (belonging to each student), a WORD-file attachment to email, etc.   

To see a 12 November 2024 video (OPTIONAL) entitled "Twee now has online version in free tool," click here. 

For more OPTIONAL explanations about Twee, watch this Canva tutorial created by Rivi Horvatt, an Israeli  EFL teacher. Please note that:

• You can leave the song anytime you like.

• The examples, which are supposed to be linked to the Canva presentation, were not there at the time of this writing. This does not detract from the explanations and examples given in the Canva presentation. 

AI Functions in Padlet (Optional)

Here's a 23 June 2024 video by Russell Stannard about using AI to create quizzes, writing activities, reading activities, and speaking activities in Padlet. 

Diffit (Optional)

Diffit is another AI tool for generating (and modifying) texts and corresponding questions. See the supplementary page for details. 

Google NotebookLM  (REQUIRED !!)

Russell Stannard posted a tutorial on 8 February 2025, explaining how language teachers could use Google NotebookLM in their work. This is incredible stuff!

Zenmic (OPTIONAL)

Here's another tutorial from Russell Stannard (from 11 February 2025) about an AI tool, called Zenmic, which quickly creates podcasts and scripts from vocabulary lists (and other information from teachers). 

Conversational Chatbots with "Teacher" Feedback (OPTIONAL)

Please watch these two snippets from Russell Stannards 9 April 2024 video about Giglish and TalkPal.

Giglish (4 minutes, 11 seconds)

TalkPal

Lingolette (REQUIRED!!)

In 2024 Russell Stannard examined about 20 chatbots and determined that Lingolette was the best at the time. (Remember, things are always changing.) Here is the first part of his 16 May 2024 video dealing with Lingolette:

Here's the second REQUIRED part of the video about Lingolette:

5 AI Tools to Study Languages At Home (Part 1) (OPTIONAL)

This is the first section of Russel Standard 24 May 2024 video about the best free AI tools for independent foreign language learning at the present time. This first part, which lasts 4 minutes and 37 seconds,  deals with speaking (Gliglish & Lingolette) and pronunciation and listening (NaturalReaders).

5 AI Tools to Study Languages At Home (Part 2) OPTIONAL

This is the second part of Russell Stannard's 24 May 2024 video. This first part, which lasts 3 minutes and 4 seconds,  deals with vocabulary (Quizlet with AI) and reading/listening/vocabulary (TurboSribe).

Diffit-AI (OPTIONAL, BUT HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)

Although Russell Stannard believes that Twee is the best AI tool for EFL at the moment, he also highly recommend using Diffit AI. Please watch these two video snippet from a tutorial he posted on 19 August 2024.

Follow-Ups (Please skim this section and come back to anything relevant.)

• Join the WhatsApp group named "AI Playground (https://chat.whatsapp.com/KAU6AtNzIPL2WOSoqpluVq), which deals with using AI in education, particularly for EFL/ESL.  Dr. Elena Mizrachi, one of the group's administrators, hosts an excellent weekly workshop on Wednesdays for educators. Although the workshops are synchronous, you can find the recordings at "The Virtual Exchange Center" YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@virtual-exchange.center Much of the discussion on the  AI Play

• Click here for other examples of A.I. tools that are dedicated to teaching ESL/EFL.

• For a list of A.I. tools for English teachers, click here. Hopefully, this list has been maintained.

• For a helpful Canva presentation about using AI tools in TEFL, which the Talpiot College presented in 2023 as part of the "Unleashing the Power of AI for English Teachers" online conference, click here, scroll down a bit, and then click on the button for the presentation. 

• To see what ChatGPT suggests for EFL teachers and students click here.

• Another tool is TalkPal AI, which has a limited free version and two levels of commercial versions.

• Finally, you might want to join one of the groups in the "Teaching English with A.I. WhatsApp Community." which provides a daily stream of new ideas and names of new tools for EFL teachers in Israel. Join the relevant WhatsApp group:

Link to the main group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LnTp3TyB7TiDDdkFUpS8vV

Elementary School: https://chat.whatsapp.com/C0p3J1IKxC1LXxgraF8lH7

Junior High School: https://chat.whatsapp.com/GERApAl1nGrFEi7XfNLjTn

High School: https://chat.whatsapp.com/Dwln9jp5HGfDaYX58KV6AA

(I suggest joining only the main group and perhaps the most relevant second group. There are a lot of posts and most of them are cross-posted to the other lists. In fact, the WhatApp groups may have reached their maximum membership, so the administator opened up a WhatsApp community, which contains all of the above groups.)

Parallel to the WhatsApp group, there is the Israeli EFL Teachers' Facebook group for using AI in EFL

https://www.facebook.com/groups/184216334673666/permalink/184506404644659/?mibextid=S66gvF 

• Here is a general list of A.I. tools, not just for English teaching. It's called Futurepedia. 

Beyond that, the rapidity of changes makes it futile (on any particular day) to attempt a full annotated listing of good A.I. tools for EFL teachers. 

2. Here's a link to the MoE's portal page that deals with A.I. tools.

Two new Russell Stannard videos about AI tools:

QuestionWell- Really interesting quizzes around YouTube Videos 

Diffit can save you so much time 

Homework:

Please note: Late homework will be penalized 20% of the initial grade. Your first post is worth 60% and the second post (a meaningful response to some one else) is worth 40%.  

Open a free account at Twee.com, explore the options, then ask Twee to generate ONE short exercise in a format that you have used manually in the past. Examine what Twee offers you. 

• Is it good enough to give to students? Why? / Why not? 

• If it is good enough for students, how would you present it to them (given your real-life teaching environment) 

• How would the students show their work (in a way that you could easily see their answers)?

Your first post to the "Lesson 05 - AI for EFL" forum in MOODLE, will have TWO parts. 

1. Briefly discuss if you have you been using A.I. tools in your EFL classroom? If so, which are the best tools you have found and what have you done with them?

2. Briefly report on your experience with Twee (or similar A.I. tool for English teachers). 

   • What format did you use?

   • What was the primary goal of the exercise?

   • What was the grade level and linguistic level of the intended students?

   • How would you present the material and how would you receive the students' responses?

   • What is your opinion of Twee (or the alternative A.I. tool that you used)?

Read the posts from all the other students and REPLY to at least one with a meaningful response. (Please note: "I agree." or "Great!" is not meaningful without a thoughtful presentation of why.) Perhaps choose the most controversial or most helpful. If you disagree with someone, please do so politely and constructively!

 Please note: If you post your initial text or your REPLY in the wrong place, it will not be part of the class discussion on the current topic. Few will see it. Few will benefit from it and few will be able to respond to it. Thus, your post will be (almost) worthless and will receive a grade of zero. Just follow the instructions and get the full grade!