Video transcript
Want a couple of great ideas to use AI for teaching vocabulary? Keep watching!
If this is the first time we’re meeting, I’m Jo Gakonga, I’ve been in the English language teaching game for 35 years and training teachers on CELTA and MA TESOL programmes since the year 2000. I’ve also got a website at ELT-Training.com where I make video based material for teachers at all stages of their careers including my new course AI Powered Language Teaching, which will help to take the work out of giving your learners personalised, communicative lessons on any topic, at any level using ChatGPT and Bard to help you. Check it out and don’t forget to like and subscribe here if you want to see more of my stuff!
So- here’s the first idea and it’s for your learners to do OUTSIDE class.
This is great for higher levels especially to help them really understand the use of a particular item. Tell them that when they learn a new word, it’s important to see it in context. Looking at the dictionary definition or a translation isn’t always enough. Tell them to use ChatGPT or Bard to give them examples.
Here’s one I did earlier – and it’s an authentic one because it’s a word that I came across recently that I’d never heard before- FATIDICAL. Do you know what it is? Well, I looked online and got this definition.. or this from Collins.. or this less-than-helpful one from the OED. But I still wasn’t sure how to use it exactly… so I asked Bard and this is what I got. Much more useful.
I think this amount of context in the sentences makes it really clear how it’s used – that it’s obviously quite literary and maybe rather antiquated and collocates with things like astrologer, hermit, old women and prophesy.
Also, seeing it in that many different contexts really helped to cement it in my mind.
So there’s your first idea- show your learners how to use ChatGPT or Bard to write examples to help them understand.
Idea number 2
This is similar but something to do IN CLASS.
You’ve got vocabulary that you’ve taught- maybe in this lesson, maybe in other lessons- and you want to review it. A gap fill makes sure they understand it in context but it’s hard work to write your own, so just ask Bard to do it for you.
Put in a prompt- please make a gapfill exercise with contextualised sentences for the following vocabulary- and paste in the words you want to review. I chose some at random and got these sentences AND a story that combined most of them! Nice. All you have to do is to paste this onto a Word document. You may have to edit things a bit- I’m not saying it’s perfect, but it’s much faster than making it up from scratch and it’s useful recycling of vocabulary. Give it a go.
If you like these ideas and want ten frameworks to use with AI as your classroom assistant to make lessons for any level on any topic without hours of work, check out my course and I hope this has inspired you to experiment with ChatGPT, Bard and Co-Pilot a bit if you haven’t already. Have fun.
