Using AI for lots of example sentences & English speaking practice!

I wrote this up for the Facebook live today and didn’t get to use it, so I thought I’d add it here.   I’ll cover:

  • How to get lots of example sentences, so you can jump from conscious competence to unconscious competence with grammar.
  • How you can personalise content for each individual student according to their hobbies/interests
  • How to make the output more fun
  • How to take these sentences into a skit form so kids can practice speaking
  • Prompts to make the output more suitable for different age groups

And then in today’s Facebook live we discussed how you’ll soon be able to take this skits and make AI animations for them!

But before we start ….. if you haven’t used any AI tools yet, then check out this “AI Made Easy For Teachers” video first:

 

OK, now let’s get into the meaty stuff! 

Here we go ……

PROMPT: “Give me 30 fun sentences for kids using only the future perfect continuous”

1. By the time we arrive, they will have been playing soccer for two hours.

2. Tomorrow at noon, she will have been painting pictures for three hours straight.

3. By the time we finish dinner, the sun will have been setting for thirty minutes.

4. When you wake up, the birds will have been

OK, that’s correct but is soooo boring!   So let’s make it more fun and personalized for each student according to their interests or hobbies, for example …..

PROMPT: “Make them more fun, humorous, only about soccer and add emoji”

  1. By the time you finish your cereal, the squirrels will have been playing soccer with acorns for an hour! ⚽🐿️
  2. Tomorrow, the penguins will have been practicing soccer on ice for three hours! 🐧⚽❄️
  3. When we reach the park, the dogs will have been dribbling soccer balls with their noses for 45 minutes! 🐶⚽
  4. After lunch, the kangaroos will have been bouncing soccer balls on their tails for two hours! ⚽🦘
  5. At sunset, the frogs will have been scoring goals with flies for an hour and a half! 🐸⚽🦟
  6. The zebras will have been playing soccer with their striped soccer balls for three hours! ⚽🦓
  7. When you brush your teeth tonight, the cats will have been practicing soccer with yarn balls for 90 minutes! 🐱⚽🧶
  8. The snails will have been having a super slow-motion soccer match for a whole day by tomorrow! 🐌⚽😂
  9. In the afternoon, the octopuses will have been playing underwater soccer for four hours! 🐙⚽🌊
  10. By the time we get to the beach, the crabs will have been kicking soccer balls with their claws for an hour! 🦀⚽
  11. Tomorrow morning, the monkeys will have been swinging from trees to play soccer for two hours! 🐒⚽🌳
  12. When we reach the top of the mountain, the goats will have been playing soccer with their heads for three hours! 🐐⚽
  13. The elephants will have been using their trunks to play soccer for four hours by the time we reach the zoo! 🐘⚽
  14. When we finish our hike, the bears will have been playing soccer with their giant paws for an hour and a half! 🐻⚽
  15. At the end of the day, the giraffes will have been playing soccer with their long necks for two hours! 🦒⚽
  16. In the morning, the turtles will have been playing soccer with their shells for three hours! 🐢⚽
  17. When we get to the farm, the cows will have been playing soccer with hay bales for an hour! 🐮⚽🌾
  18. At the playground, the rabbits will have been hopping around playing soccer for two hours! 🐰⚽
  19. By the time we get to the pond, the ducks will have been splashing soccer balls for an hour and a half! 🦆⚽💦
  20. After breakfast, the owls will have been playing nighttime soccer with glow-in-the-dark balls for three hours! 🦉⚽🌙
  21. The lions will have been roaring their team chants during soccer practice for two hours! 🦁⚽
  22. When we visit the aquarium, the dolphins will have been playing soccer with beach balls for an hour! 🐬⚽🏖️
  23. Tomorrow, the horses will have been galloping while playing soccer

That’s quite a few there!  So hopefully that will get the kids’ brains figuring out how the pattern works.

 Ninja Tip:  Amateurs teach rules.  Professionals teach skills.   Letting me figure out how the patterns work lets me jump to the ninja “unconscious competence” level.   Telling me the grammar “rules” robs me of this and keeps me down on the amateur level!

So now we need to practice speaking using these sentences.

Ninja Tip: Just like cooking with grandma, just reading isn’t going get you the skill.    To get good at cooking you need to cook.  Lots.  To get good at skiing you need to ski. Lots.   To get good at speaking you need to ….. 

We can use Genki Games or let’s use the AI to make some skits and plays for us.

You could do a straight “Write me a play using only the future perfect continuous tense.” but again that would be soooooooo boring, so let’s Genki it up a bit ….

PROMPT: “Write me a fun, humorous skit about soccer using only the future perfect continuous tense. Add a twist to the end of the skit”

Title: The Great Animal Soccer Tournament

Characters:
Coach Flamingo
Timmy the Turtle
Barry the Bear
Polly the Penguin
Sammy the Snail

(Scene opens at a soccer field, where Coach Flamingo is addressing the team)

Coach Flamingo: By the time this practice session ends, we will have

 

That looks OK.  But I think for this level of grammar we’re probably looking at teens so talking animals probably aren’t that hot for them!  So …..

 

PROMPT: “Make it more cool and more suitable for teenagers”

Title: The Galactic Soccer Showdown

Characters:

Coach Zephyr, an alien soccer expert
Max Mars, a Martian forward
Venus Vicky, a Venusian defender
Jupiter Jake, a Jovian midfielder
Saturn Sally, a Saturnian goalkeeper

(Scene opens at an interstellar soccer field, where Coach Zephyr is addressing the team)

Coach Zephyr: Alright, team! By the time this practice session ends, we will have been training for three cosmic hours. Let’s make every minute count!

Max Mars: Hey, Coach! By the time I get to the goal, I will have been dribbling around those asteroids for fifteen minutes! Watch this!

Venus Vicky: Just wait, Max! By the time you try to score, I will have been blocking shots with my anti-gravity moves for half an hour!

Jupiter Jake: You two are great, but by the time I pass this ball to Saturn

 

That’s a little better.  But “Saturn Sally” for teens?  Not very cool!  So …..

PROMPT: “That’s still a little cheesy”

Title: The Ultimate VR Soccer Challenge

Characters:
Alex, a seasoned virtual reality gamer
Bailey, a soccer enthusiast and rival gamer
Chris, an AI soccer coach
Dana, a virtual referee

(Scene opens in a virtual reality gaming lounge, where Alex and Bailey are gearing up for an intense soccer match)

Alex: Alright, Bailey, by the time this VR match ends, I will have been outplaying you for an hour straight. Are you ready for this?

Bailey: Ha! Keep dreaming, Alex. By the time we reach the second half, I will have been scoring goals left and right for 45 minutes!

(Chris, the AI soccer coach, appears on the screen)

Chris: Players, please remember that by the time the game concludes, you both will have been testing your skills and reflexes for a full 90 minutes. Focus on enjoying the game and learning from each other.

Now we’re cooking!

So once the you have the AI skills you can knock these out for every class or even every student!

Let me know if this helps and just keep in mind that for the example sentences you have to:

  1. Check they are correct (the AI, like a human, sometimes gets them wrong so proof read everything!)
  2. Are fun and interesting (ask it for 30 and you can probably use 5 or 6)
  3. Aren’t too repetitive (you’ll see once it gets into a rut it tends to stick there!)

So curation is the key skill you have to acquire!

Or …. if that sounds like too much hassle and you just want already curated sentences, without the skits, for every grammar tense, you can always buy my book & it’s even cheaper than buying the AI tools!

Let me know if you’d like to know more!!

Be genki,

Richard

Richard Graham

I'm on a mission to make education Genki—fun, exciting, and full of life! Genki English has now been researched by Harvard University and licensed by the British Council around the world. The results have been magical! Now I'm here to help you teach amazing lessons, with all the materials prepared for you, and to double your teaching income so you can sustainably help many more students in the future!