AI Guide for Language Teachers:
From Basics to Advanced Prompting
| Work in progress |
Hi there!
Welcome to this practical guide to AI for language teachers, covering what AI can actually do, how to prompt it well, and ChatGPT prompts you can use immediately for vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, listening, speaking, and lesson planning. Whether you're brand new to AI or already using it daily, there's something here for you.
Who wrote this?
I'm Morten, a long-time language learner, and the founder of Edumo. My native language is Danish, and I learned English and some German in school. As an adult, I've spent years trying to learn Bulgarian, my wife's language. That struggle is part of what led me to start Edumo and to talk to a lot of language teachers along the way.
What went into this?
I've spoken with teachers from primary education to recreational courses, from classroom settings to online 1:1 tutoring. Teachers who disliked AI. Teachers frustrated by correcting AI mistakes. And teachers eager to use it everywhere.
One thing that kept coming up was preparation time. Time to find materials, time to adjust them, or creating entirely new materials for specific learners and creating lessons plans. Teachers that care about this can spend a lot of time on prep.
AI can help with a lot of the preparation, and there is a lot of AI guides and advice out there. However, it may be too generic, too technical or not enough, or be behind sign-up or pay-walls. That's why I've compiled what I've heard from language teachers and tried to create practical advice and prompts you can copy and use.
Who is this for?
This is for language teachers that want to reduce the time they spend on preparation, to improve their materials or be able to personalize for each learner.
I've seen especially independent language teachers and tutors on platforms like Preply and iTalki create a lot of their own materials and even create stories and dialogs for their individual students.
But honestly, if you're any kind of language teacher curious about how AI fits into your workflow, you'll find something useful here. You don't need to be technical. You don't need to be an AI enthusiast. You just need to be open to trying things.
How to use this guide
You don't have to read this guide front to back. If you're already comfortable with AI and just want prompts for grammar exercises, jump straight to that chapter. If you're brand new and want to understand what you're actually working with first, start at the beginning.
Part 1 covers the foundations. Part 2 is where most teachers will spend their time — prompts for every teaching task, organized by skill. Part 3 is for when you want to go further.
Happy reading :)
Morten
Contents
Part 1 - Foundations |
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| 1. | What can AI do for Language Teachers? Understand what AI is genuinely good at and where it still falls short, so you start with realistic expectations. |
| 2. | How to talk to AI (Prompting Fundamentals) Learn how to write prompts that work, with the core principles that apply to every teaching task. |
| 3. | Using the Learner's Native Language (L1) with AI Discover how to use a learner's first language strategically to create more effective explanations and materials. |
| 4. | The AI Tool Landscape A practical overview of the main AI tools for language teachers and what each one does, and which situations they fit best. |
Part 2 - AI Prompts for Every Teaching Task |
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| 5. | Vocabulary ChatGPT prompts for generating vocabulary lists tailored to your learner's level, profession, and context. |
| 6. | Grammar Ready-to-use prompts for creating grammar exercises, explanations, and practice materials for any target structure. |
| 7. | Reading and Text Adaption How to use AI to create level-appropriate reading materials and adapt existing texts for different learner needs. |
| 8. | Writing Prompts for generating writing prompts, model texts, and feedback frameworks that save you hours of prep time. |
| 9. | Listening Use AI to create scripts, comprehension questions, and scaffolded listening tasks for any topic or level. |
| 10. | Speaking Generate role-play scenarios, discussion questions, and conversation starters tailored to your learner's real life. |
| 11. | Lesson Activities and Games Quickly create engaging classroom and online activities — from quizzes to language games — using AI prompts. |
| 12. | Lesson Planning and Course Design Use AI to draft lesson outlines, sequence activities, and build structured mini-courses faster than starting from scratch. |
| 13. | Assessment and Feedback Generate rubrics, feedback templates, and self-assessment tools that help learners understand their own progress. |
Part 3 - Level Up |
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| 14. | Advanced Prompting Techniques Go beyond basic prompts — chaining, role-assigning, and iterating to get consistently higher-quality AI output. |
| 15. | Building Your Own Prompt Library Turn your best prompts into a reusable system so you're not starting from zero for every new student or topic. |
| 16. | AI for Teaching Business Specialized prompts for business language teaching, dialogs, industry vocabulary, and scenario-based materials. |
| 17. | From AI Output to Learner Progress How to connect what you create with AI to how your learners actually practice and improve — closing the loop. |