برای دریافت فایل اینجا را کلیک کنید.

For ESL teachers, AI can become a powerful aid for planning lessons and generating activities, thus saving precious time that can be invested in more fruitful pursuits. To be sure, there are a few AI-powered educational resources, such as Diffit, Eduaid, or Magic School, that provide an array of features to help teachers in lesson planning and design. Let’s look at some ways ESL teachers can leverage AI tools to promote students’ reading skills in particular.

1. Modify reading materials to adapt them to different language levels.

As an ESL teacher, you can use any open-source AI system, like ChatGPT, to accomplish this task. All that is needed is to copy and paste the selected text into the AI assistant and instruct the latter to rewrite the text for the desired English language level. For example, Magic School has a “Text Rewriter” function that does just that. As a measure of caution, always reread and, if necessary, edit the modified material, especially if you are modifying a complex text to make it accessible to a beginner level. Some AI-powered educational sites, like Diffit, will automatically produce a list of keywords with definitions as well as writing prompts in the form of short-answer questions and open-ended questions.

2. Extract vocabulary from readings and produce a glossary with native-language translations.

While most AI-powered educational sites don’t offer a specific feature for vocabulary extraction, you can accomplish this by simply instructing an open-source AI chatbot to extract all the vocabulary from a text and then translate it into your student’s native language(s). Vocabulary translation can be easily accomplished by using any automatic translator. Before the advent of AI, vocabulary extraction used to be a much more complex task. All in all, this is an extremely useful feature that encourages learners to read in the target language and possibly removes the temptation to copy and paste the text into a computer translator.

3. Identify high-frequency and low-frequency words.

Prompt an AI chatbot to identify high-frequency words in a selected text. This helps create vocabulary lists and decide which words to concentrate on. You want your students to be as familiar as possible with high-frequency words, as their knowledge helps increase fluency. However, identifying low-frequency words is also important. If the selected text has too many low-frequency words, it may not be suitable for some students. On the other hand, you may want to select some low-frequency words and focus on them for vocabulary enrichment.

4. Personalize news articles using AI.

You can easily generate readings in your student’s area of interest by prompting an AI system to write an article on a given topic. Students will be much more likely to engage in the reading process if they know they will gain knowledge about something they are passionate about.

A good way to go about this is to have your learners complete a questionnaire. You can, for example, ask them to tell you about three topics they are interested in, three hobbies they engage in, three places they would like to visit, three things they love to eat (two from their native cuisine and one foreign food), and three things they would like to know more about. The answers to the questionnaire will generate an adequate amount of topics you can use to create reading material. You can then cross-reference the information received since some students will share the same interests and assign your learners readings based on topic and language level.

It’s important to remember that you must check and edit all AI-generated content carefully before presenting it to students. If a prompt is unclear or simply misunderstood, AI tools will generate a response that may not be relevant or correct. You can minimize incorrect information and improve generated responses by asking AI systems to give sources and links for the information provided and by working to provide prompts that are as specific and detailed as possible. It takes some practice, but with the proper precautions and attention to detail, AI assistants can be a fantastic asset in the ESL classroom.

5. Ask AI tools to write a short story about a topic your students are interested in.

Some learners prefer reading stories rather than articles, and if you teach young students, storytelling can be a powerful tool for ESL learners. Using the same steps outlined in the previous section, you can ask an AI assistant to write a story on any given topic. You could also instruct students on how to write prompts and query the AI assistant themselves. Make this a teachable moment, and take some time to explain to your students how to write a good prompt and how to assess and revise the AI-generated results.

For example, point out that prompts must be specific. Instead of simply asking the AI system to write a story about cats, students should specify the desired English language level and provide a list of words to be used in the story, i.e., words they need to learn or practice, etc. Let your students know that they should always read what the AI tool produces with a critical eye and ask for teacher feedback when necessary.

6. Generate reading comprehension drills.

One excellent feature of AI-powered educational sites is the ability to produce reading comprehension exercises in the form of multiple-choice questions, short answers, and open-ended questions. This feature drastically shortens the time teachers would normally have to invest in creating reading-related activities. It allows them to get immediate feedback on their students’ understanding of the reading and their ability to reflect on the topics presented. In addition, the open-ended questions can be modified to spur and enhance critical thinking skills.

7. Ask AI tools to analyze the grammatical and syntactical structures in the reading.

This feature is ostensibly absent in most AI-powered educational sites. However, with open-source AI assistants like ChatGPT, teachers can obtain a reasonably well-crafted text analysis by breaking the task down to specific questions. For instance, in the example below, asking ChatGPT to analyze the syntactical structure of a short text yielded a list of simple sentences, complex sentences, compound sentences, clauses (dependent and independent), and phrases present in the text. Asking it to provide a list of all the verbs with tense specification similarly produced a list of verbs subdivided by tense (present tense, simple past, past perfect, gerund).

Such an analysis can help students identify the different parts of speech and better understand their roles in a sentence.

8. Generate stories and drills to practice specific vocabulary and grammar.

If there are specific lexical areas you want your students to learn and practice, you can instruct an AI assistant to write a story based on a vocabulary list. For example, if you are teaching students the vocabulary needed to order at a restaurant, you could ask AI to write a three-paragraph story using words such as restaurant, waiter, order, eat, drink, soda, water, coffee, food, main course, side dish, meat, fish, beef, chicken, salmon, salad, appetizer, dessert, delicious, expensive, etc. Alternatively, you could focus on grammar structures. For example, for an ESL beginner level, you could ask an AI assistant to write a short story to practice the following grammar structures: personal pronouns and present tense.

Your prompt should be as specific as possible, preferably providing a few details for the story. Here is an example of a prompt you could submit to an AI tool:

• Write a short story (200-400 words) for young ESL students at a beginner’s level to practice the following grammar structures: personal pronouns and present tense forms of to be, to have, to want, to go, and to say. The story should be about a boy who wants a pet cat but doesn’t have one. He tries three different tactics to convince his parents that he should be allowed to get a cat. In the end, he is allowed to get a pet cat. All verbs should be in the present tense. Provide plenty of repetition.

This type of prompt will provide you with a skeleton story that you can then edit by adding, removing, or replacing words. For example, below you can see the story that ChatGPT created from the above prompt. It would need a little editing but is a great start.

For those interested in comprehensible input and TPRS teaching strategies, this method can also be used to create TPRS-style stories.

Artificial Intelligence is rapidly integrating into daily life and, like most technological innovations, will remain for the foreseeable future. There will be a time when people won’t remember the pre-AI era. Thus, it is incumbent on educators to familiarize themselves with this tool and teach students how to use it productively and ethically. From the ability to modify texts and adapt them to students’ language level to the ability to generate articles and stories on any topic, AI tools provide an array of useful resources to help facilitate the job of ESL teachers.

بهبود مهارت های شنیداری با ابزارهای هوش مصنوعی

یکی از چالش های اصلی در یادگیری زبان انگلیسی، تقویت مهارت شنیداری است. بسیاری از زبان آموزان با فهمیدن مکالمات انگلیسی، به ویژه با لهجه های مختلف، مشکل دارند. اینجاست که ابزارهای هوش مصنوعی می توانند نقش بسیار مؤثری ایفا کنند. ابزارهای مبتنی بر هوش مصنوعی به زبان آموزان کمک می کنند که مهارت شنیداری خود را به شکلی تعاملی و با استفاده از فناوری های پیشرفته بهبود بخشند.

در این مقاله، برخی از بهترین ابزارهای هوش مصنوعی که برای تقویت مهارت شنیداری طراحی شدهاند را معرفی می کنیم و به شما نشان می دهیم چگونه می توانید از آنها برای یادگیری سریعتر و مؤثرتر استفاده کنید.

ELSA Speak

ELSA Speak یکی از پیشرفته ترین اپلیکیشن های یادگیری زبان است که با استفاده از هوش مصنوعی، مهارت شنیداری و تلفظ کاربران را بهبود می بخشد. این ابزار به شما امکان می دهد که با شنیدن و تکرار جملات، تلفظ و لهجه خود را بهبود دهید. هوش مصنوعی ELSA با تحلیل دقیق صدای شما، نقاط ضعف را شناسایی و پیشنهادهای اصلاحی ارائه می کند.    وبسایت ELSA Speak

Speechify

Speechify یک ابزار مبتنی بر هوش مصنوعی است که متن های نوشتاری را به گفتار تبدیل می کند. با استفاده از این ابزار، می توانید هر متنی را به صوت تبدیل کنید و به آن گوش دهید. این امکان به شما کمک میکند که مهارت شنیداری خود را بهبود دهید، به ویژه اگر بخواهید متن های مختلفی را گوش کنید و همزمان یادداشت بردارید.  وبسایت Speechify

Google Assistant

Google Assistant یکی از پرکاربردترین دستیارهای هوش مصنوعی است که میتواند به شما در تمرین مهارتهای شنیداری کمک کند. می توانید از Google Assistant بخواهید که برای شما جملات انگلیسی را با سرعت و لهجه های مختلف بخواند. همچنین، می توانید با طرح سوالات و مکالمه با آن، مهارت شنیداری خود را تقویت کنید.  وبسایت Google Assistant

Tandem

Tandem یک اپلیکیشن یادگیری زبان با استفاده از مکالمات واقعی است. این اپلیکیشن با هوش مصنوعی جفت های زبانی مناسب را به شما معرفی می کند تا بتوانید با زبان آموزان و یا افراد بومی از سراسر جهان تمرین شنیداری داشته باشید. این مکالمات زنده، بهترین راه برای تقویت مهارت شنیداری در موقعیتهای واقعی است.   وبسایت Tandem

EnglishGPT

EnglishGPT یک دوره جامع برای یادگیری زبان انگلیسی با کمک هوش مصنوعی است که تمرکز ویژه ای روی بهبود مهارتهای شنیداری دارد. EnglishGPT از مدلهای هوش مصنوعی استفاده می کند تا به شما کمک کند مکالمات طبیعی را بهتر درک کنید و همچنین به شما بازخوردهای فوری در مورد تلفظ و درک مکالمات میدهد. این دوره به زبانآموزان کمک میکند تا بهصورت تعاملی مهارتهای خود را تقویت کنند.

برای اطلاعات بیشتر درباره این دوره، می توانید از ربات تلگرامی t.me/English_GPTbot استفاده کنید و با تمرینات شنیداری به طور مستقیم از طریق تلفن همراه خود زبان انگلیسی را تقویت کنید.

All teachers want to start the year off on a good note. I’m one of those people who believes how you start is how you will finish. You have a better chance to finish strong if you start strong. Here are some suggestions to try during the first two months of the new school year to give your class a great start

Be Positive

Let the class know that this is a chance for everyone to start fresh. Explain that it doesn’t matter how they did last year. All that matters is how they perform now. Tell them that you don’t listen to rumors about students from last year and don’t encourage this type of talk in your classroom. This is a clean slate for everyone and an opportunity to do better

Go into the Year Expecting Good Things to Happen

Expect this to be a super year because you want it to be. Know that you are prepared to do your best and that you are ready to make good things happen. Let your students know that you expect the same optimism and preparation from them for the new school year

Tell Them about YOU

Humanize yourself. If you’re going to aspire to develop relationships, then show them your human side. Within reason and always keeping it appropriate, tell them about your family, children, pets, or any unique hobbies you may have. If you’re a coach or a sponsor, let them know. Much of what you share will depend on the grade level and situation, but sharing about yourself is a great way to establish connections immediately. I still get surprised at how much a student can feel connected to their teacher because they feel they have something in common.

Make Your Expectations Known Right Away and Make them Clear

There are three types of expectations I believe a teacher should highlight. The first is the social aspect. Let students know that you expect everyone in the room to be courteous and respectful to each other. Let them know that being nice does not cost anything and that it is the minimum that you expect everyone to be towards each other

The second aspect is the academic domain. Let everyone know that you expect them to simply do their best, give their best effort, and turn in all work completed throughout the year

The third aspect is the human domain. Tell the class you expect them to be a “family” by the end of the year. Let them know that you want every person to feel included, that no one feels ostracized for any reason and that everyone encourages each other rather than bullying. This takes time, but it’s important to make it a priority

Let Your Students Talk and Get to Know Each Other

There are many activities (icebreakers) with which to do this. The better your students know each other, the more included everyone feels and the more everyone can work together to accomplish goals and help each other.

Some ideas you may want to try are

1. Play the blob game. Have students organize themselves in groups or “blobs” by things they have in common: hobbies, birthdays, eye color, or favorite sport.
2. Play the name game. Have students say their first and last name then say something they like. The next student to go says their own name and something they like, but then repeats the name of the person that just went as well as what they said they liked.
3. Play catch. Bring a beach ball that has the beginning of a sentence on each side, whatever side the student sees first when they catch the ball is the question they answer. For example, you can use questions such as “My favorite thing I did this summer was…”, or “My favorite subject is…”

Explain Your Rules

Keep your rules simple, have no more than three rules and make sure they are reasonable. If you can involve your students in creating the rules, this is great. That may give them a feeling of ownership. However, be sure they are rules you can live with and enforce

Clearly Cover Your Procedures

Put your procedures in writing and discuss them with the class to be sure everyone is on the same page and understands what you expect of the students throughout the year

Capitalize on Good Things

When good things happen, point out to the class how wonderful everyone is. Use positive reinforcement to create an environment where students are driven to succeed and can be proud of their achievements

But Don’t Let Bad Things Define Your Class

When bad things happen, consider them to be an aberration and move on. Do not keep replaying things and do not focus on bad events that have occurred. Just as bad actions don’t define a person, so bad things won’t define your class, nor should you let it

Early in the Year, Start with Easier Instructional Information

There is a saying that success breeds success. Start with material that’s almost like a review so everyone can feel confident going into the school year. This simple step will help students feel more comfortable and familiar and can help facilitate success right from the beginning