I’ve talked previously about the importance of doing prep work for your iTalki and other one-to-one language lessons. Well, AI platforms just make that a lot easier (and free!).

You can generate mini ‘schemes of work’ that are matched precisely to the topics you are studying. With the proliferation of big name, public access AI platforms like Bing and ChatGPT, it’s easier than ever to support your learning in these incredibly tailored ways.

Sample Prompt

The best way to see just how useful this is, is to dive right in. Here’s a ready-made prompt to try with your chatbot of choice; simply change the language, topic and level to suit:

Tip: if your AI stops part of the way through (these outputs can be long!), just type Please continue and it will carry on spooling.

The final output will be a mini workbook-style guide to the topic, with vocab, discourse modelling, and reading practice. I like to paste mine into a text document, then export it as a PDF to read on my phone or tablet when I’m out and about. Here’s that sample Italian one (truncated to 10 items for brevity!):

Italian – Renewable Energy Topic Plan (PDF)

Learning instantly organised, in just a few clicks!

It’s All About You…

Experiment with that sample prompt to get exactly the kind of output that works specifically for you. For instance, you could tailor the output much more closely to your own circumstances by adding something like:

…where X/Y/Z is your town, your field, your related interests. The sky really is the limit.

And a note of advice: when you find a prompt that works like a charm, save it in a note somewhere. It could become your go-to resource for future language learning.

Happy prompting!