ELT Experiences

If you have been living under a rock for the past few months and unsure what is Chat GPT, then this is essentially an online AI tool that can be used to generate requested content. There have been many English teachers recognising the potential with language learners, and I thought I would share my experiences so far with private English students with some tips for use in an educational setting.

1. Create Exam Questions

The first idea that teachers could use for Chat GPT for is to generate essay questions, particularly for IELTS students. All you have to do is ask Chat GPT to generate some essay questions for English students and in seconds it provides some inspiration. If you are preparing students for IELTS or a range of Cambridge Examinations, and do not wish to use previously delivered model questions with them, Chat GPT could be used to generate a range of questions for learners.

With the example provided in the image on the left, you could select a question at random or give learners an opportunity to choose. There is also a brief reminder for potential students of the time constraints for the IELTS Writing Part 2 being 40 minutes.

2. Create Model Answers

As well as just creating exam questions for students, you could use this online tool for generating potential model answers. Why would you bother doing this? If students wish to compare their written work with potential models, then Chat GPT generates a potential opportunity to model different bands – see the suggestions below.

In the example above, I requested Chat GPT to generate a potential response for a Band 4 model answer. This could be used to help students develop awareness of structure of potential answers, cohesive devices or synonyms from the exam question. However, what would a Band 8 answer look like?

Chat GPT responded to such a question by producing a model answer. You could do a couple of things with students with each of the texts. Firstly, you could either combine both answers, cut up all the paragraphs, with students having to reconstruct, and decide which answer is a Band 8 and what is considered (by the AI tool) to be a Band 4. Secondly, they could compare their answer with a suggestion and grade their own writing. Thirdly, learners might find it useful to notice the language that has emerged from the AI tool and they could use this to re-write their answer.

It should be noted at the moment, that there is the question regarding originality of student language should learners depend on Chat GPT on creating written work on behalf of them. This is a whole different aspect regarding AI tools being used to complete homework for learners. However, it should be noted that for language learners, it would become pretty self-evident if a student was not able to provide further information or to expand on a point that they had submitted.

3. Correct the Written Work

The final idea that this online AI tool could be used is for students to correct written work. I asked Chat GPT to recreate the writing for the Band 8 model answer but to include spelling and grammatical errors.

Obviously, you will still have to go through the text, but getting students to go through and proofread work would offer learners the opportunity to develop skills associated with attention to detail.

I used Chat GPT to correct my private student’s piece of writing, essentially to allow my learner to differentiate between their writing and what was suggested. You could apply a similar technique to get learners to check their writing compared to an AI suggestion. Again, this raises the issue of originality and whether there is an ethical approach to using AI tools within writing.

So these are three ideas for using Chat GPT with students or in class. What teaching ideas do you have for using such a tool with your class? Would you consider using such tools with your students? Where does this leave the teacher within the writing process? Just a few questions to get you thinking.

Meanwhile, what does Chat GPT have to say about this? Well, here is their answer!

The New Year is always a great opportunity to personally reflect on the previous year, but it is particularly important for me as a teacher. This is mainly due to the fact that I started teaching back many years ago in December in South Korea. I have now been teaching English in some capacity for over 17 years and have many fond memories. So where did this all start me?

I was really forced into TEFL in South Korea in the winter of 2005, as I had been job hunting for six months after graduating and had failed to secure any form of employment in the UK. As I was married to a South Korean national, it seemed fitting that we try our luck in her country. We packed our things, shipped them to the other side of the world, and then caught a plane to Seoul. It seems another time entirely.

I arrived in this exotic country, with absolutely no knowledge of Korea, an undergraduate degree in International Business, and renewed enthusiasm to secure employment, doing what I could to support my young family. Anyone who has had the opportunity to travel to South East Asia would particularly understand that the only field that is really available for arrivals – particularly in the early 1990s and 2000s – was to teach English to young children. I was able to secure employment almost immediately with a private language institute (also commonly known as a ‘hagwon’), which was completely different to what I failed to achieve back in the UK for six months.

When first starting teaching in South Korea, I was based in a very small town (about an hour and a half away from Seoul) where I felt like the only foreigner there. Most jobs in the local area for locals were working in factories or in local convenience stores. Back in the winter of 2019 (prior to the pandemic), I recently met up with my boss and had a chance to see how the town had changed. It is now completely different to how I remembered it, with many new towns popping up. Many of the rice paddy fields have now gone now and it resembles more of a small city rather than a remote town.

Anyhow, when I first started teaching children in the winter of 2005, I had no certificate in English language teaching other than completing a weekend course, prior to my departure to Korea, which barely gave me the necessary skills or confidence to teach. However, I bought Grammar in Use, spent all evening planning my first day of classes, and felt like a nervous wreck upon entering the classroom. After a few weeks of planning, and getting used to my new adopted country, I refined my lesson planning, having realised that I had six classes of lessons per day and could plan one lesson per day.

This one lesson could include a variety of tasks within 50 minutes and usually my first lesson would involve elementary students with my final class being with intermediate learners. I could cover the same topic, have the worksheets all prepped within 30 minutes and have an idea of what to do in each class by grading the difficulty or activities. And that was my introduction to English language teaching in South Korea.

After fourteen months of teaching young learners, I really wanted to take my teaching to the next lesson and decided to undertake a CELTA at the British Council in Seoul. The whole process of applying can be a separate post, but I remember starting the first day after commuting a couple of hours to the centre. The CELTA Tutors were incredibly supportive and patient to all trainees, and I still keep in touch with them.

Now fast forward 17 years and I am now based in the UK teaching a range of classes – EAP, Business English, General English, IELTS Preparation to name just a few. I have met many students, taught thousands of hours to both young learners and adults, received many gifts from students, and had the chance to make many new friends. This career has been very rewarding with highs as well as a lows.

Nevertheless, here is to another 17 years.

I have returned to the physical classroom after two years of teaching remotely in the confines of my own home, and teaching face-to-face was, if I could be honest, a struggle. In this post (and corresponding video), I share some of the difficulties I encountered after returning to the physical classroom.

Challenge 1: Classroom Management

One of the initial challenges I encountered was classroom management. I am naturally not so good at remembering student names and it takes me a while for names to stick – thankfully I don’t forget my wife’s name! When returning to the classroom, I had to draw a classroom map and then write the names on this. I referred to this during lessons and it helped me remember student names. Within an online environment, remembering names is something which is not given much thought as many students have their name appearing next to their corresponding image on the screen, so I guess I became lazy and decided to rely on the image and the visual cue for student names.