As a languages teacher, I am always looking for ways to help my students consolidate their learning by making their classroom experience more dynamic and meaningful.
I usually teach exam classes so although there is a lot to learn, it could sometimes be a little repetitive for the students if we ended up doing the same drills and exercises in preparation for their A-Level exam.
I have now discovered AI in a big way and am using it for most lessons especially with regard to task-based, communicative speaking activities which can focus on a theme that we are studying in class, a sub-topic of that theme and on the practicing of a particular grammar or lexical area. For example, my French A-Level students are currently studying the origins of French Cinema. Although I had a lesson planned out for the following day, I decided to focus on some of the leading protagonists of the early French cinema – the Lumiere brothers and Georges Melieres. I went on to AI and within 5 minutes I had created two information packs about each of the characters. Students were prescribed a different character and had to read his information. They had to memorize the information and were given a set of questions to ask their partner (who was a different character). The students had to assume the role of each character. This prompted students to speak freely and to be a bit more creative and ‘spontaneous’ in terms of their language output. This was a simple multi-skill exercise which promoted listening, speaking and reading simultaneously.
I am now using AI every lesson to go help students with their spoken French and to go beyond the set exam-style speaking questions, which they still need to practice continually, but to create more spontaneity and more dynamic learning with role-play and situational language requirements which are geared to the elements of the course they are studying.
The students appear to be reacting well to this new AI input and I will keep you updated about some of the things we’ll be doing in class in the coming weeks…..
Better Language Skills 