Using AI to Build Learning, not Bypass It: 3 Ways to Focus on Process Over Product

Teachers across the globe are struggling with the same issue: AI can instantly “fix” language errors, but what does that mean for true language acquisition? Certainly there are risks that students will become dependent on AI for their language production, and I’m confident that we’ll see some students who don’t see the value of learning a language for themselves when the box in their pocket (or frames on their faces, or possibly even the chips in their brains) can do it on the fly for them. On the other hand, we’re living in a moment that can be a catalyst for deeper, more meaningful learning — one where students start to see that the value of learning is not in the final “be-all-end-all” test or a grade that may or may not reflect their mastery. Instead, we have an opportunity to help students see that the process of learning, fine-tuning, and better understanding the world through different cultures and ways of speaking and thinking is what makes humanity great.

This way of shifting education is not a promise, though, it’s just one of many possibilities of the future of learning. Still, if you lean toward this possibility, like I do, the following strategies may help you start developing your own techniques to use AI as a scaffolding tool that builds critical thinking, deeper linguistic understanding, and, hopefully, a greater appreciation for what it means to create learning in a world where cheap tools used poorly can give learners a false sense of fluency.

1. The Language Pattern Detective

One of AI’s greatest strengths is its ability to mimic high-quality, grammatically accurate writing. In turn, it can help students analyze their own writing to identify recurring grammar patterns or word choice habits. Work with your students to develop a prompt (or prompts) that they can use regularly to track their progress over time. If they’re using a more advanced chatbot, they can return to the same chat and upload new writings for analysis. The bot can then start looking for patterns that show up regularly and focus on responding to the areas that are most problematic. As students begin to recognize the problems, they can ask the chatbot to keep an eye out for other mistakes as the old ones become less and less frequent.

With this approach, students become researchers of their own language learning, and can be encouraged to find new ways to understand the areas where they are struggling. This fully personalized approach can help students stay much more deeply engaged rather than working with “find the error” type of worksheets. While it will help students to learn to build their own prompts (or together with you), something like this may get you out of the gate.

>_____
You will act as an English grammar specialist and you will track the common grammar errors I make in my writing. Your job is not to correct my writing or tell me how to change it. Instead, you will use pedagogically backed strategies to identify common errors in my writing and to help me find and fix them on my own. Your focus should prioritize helping me fix global errors over local errors. Keep focused on three common error types that you find in my writing, and as I start to improve my skills with them on future writings (uploads) you should rotate out the errors that I’ve shown improvement on and move into other errors that may appear in my writing. Please keep track of my improvements over time. While your goal is to focus on three salient grammar issues, you should point out errors that I have worked through in the past that may resurface from time to time.

2. The Confidence Builder

A lot of students have the language but not the fluency they desire to speak smoothly in daily conversations — this is why everyday situations like talking to a barista at the coffee shop or getting help from a bank teller are common practice areas in English language classes. While language learners often get off to a good start in their classes, many of my own students have told me that they’re comfortable in my class, but they’re less confident in the “real world” and they’d like more practice at home. For these students, switching a chatbot to voice mode (available on many, but not all services, so check to make sure it works for you!) means on-demand practice time with an endlessly patient partner.

Give your students a prompt like the following, then have them switch to voice mode to begin the conversation.

>_____
I’m a multilingual learner of English, but often people do not adjust their English to make it easier for me to understand. I want to practice listening to real English and responding when I talk to a [barista] at a [coffee shop]. I’d like you to take the role of [the barista] and to help me follow along. You will stay in the role of [barista] unless I say “I don’t understand.” If I say “I don’t understand” you will temporarily switch roles to English Language Teacher and explain what you said, checking for issues like vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation to see where I struggled. You will check to see if I understand your explanations, and if I do, you will return to the previous conversation and start from the line before I told you “I don’t understand.”

3. The Language Register

As students become more advanced, they’ll need to learn about register, switching their style of speaking depending on the context. A lot of English language teachers enjoy teaching slang and other fun ways to use daily English, but may dedicate less time to teaching students the appropriate ways to express ideas in a board meeting, while discussing legal documents, or while giving a speech to an audience of strangers. Of course there are wonderful classes that focus on these skills, but students can also now use AI to help them understand these changes quickly and in small chunks.

If a student knows what they want to say, they can work with a chatbot to build their register. Consider having students play with the prompt below, or you can work with them to build something fully customized to their needs:

>_____
I'm a multilingual learner of English and I want to learn to speak more professionally at my office. I'm going to be in a board meeting, and I know what I need to talk about, but I don't know the right way to do it. Can you build me a mini-training that helps me understand how to transition what I know how to say into a formal setting for business? You will ask me what I want to say, then you will help me change the register, but you will guide me through an understanding of the new way of saying it.

Spending the time to help students see that they can take their learning into their own hands without handing over their thinking and personal expression to chatbots is going to become an important part of teaching as we continue to shape what the future of education looks like. I hope these ideas work as a good starting point to help you consider what you want your students to be thinking about and focusing on as they start discovering ways to take control of their own learning.