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Education has undergone gradual change because of technological developments in recent years, particularly in the aftermath of the pandemic. This urgent need to improve digital literacy has accelerated the process of adapting to innovative technologies, as well as the need to develop them. Universities, as higher education institutions, tend to follow current trends, if not become pioneers themselves. As the Foreign Languages Department of Istanbul Nişantaşı University, we also recognise the importance of enhancing course content with recent technologies and AI-supported practice opportunities. Our academic and administrative staff regularly attend training sessions to acquire new knowledge and apply it in our courses.
As part of these training activities, I had the opportunity to attend a two-day programme this March, hosted by Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf University. The training brought together instructors from various universities across Türkiye under the title “English Language Education with Artificial Intelligence” and comprised three sessions per day.
Each session was both eye-opening and highly practical. I was particularly struck by how easily one can create an application or tool to support their learning process, whether as a classroom activity for teachers or for independent study for students. This process is sufficiently accessible that even beginner-level language learners can design their own AI-assisted tools to improve their language skills independently.
As the number of AI assistants continues to increase, both students and educators need to identify those that best suit their specific needs. Students can use AI to practise the language they are learning, for instance by engaging in conversations or asking them to generate questions to test their skills. However, the use of AI extends well beyond these functions, and many users overlook some of the more advanced features offered by these tools they use daily.
Let’s say you want to practise English online without spending any money. Did you know that, rather than simply chatting with an AI assistant or using it only to access information for reading, you can create a personalised learning tool for yourself? In this way, you can experience a more visualy engaging, interactive, and enjoyable form of learning that also provides feedback on your skills. In fact, you have a free language teacher available in the comfort of your own home. All you need is basic prompt-writing skills. You can enter your prompt directly into Claude AI, as it can generate code for such tools. However, with Gemini, ChatGPT, and some other AI assistants, you may need to slct an additional code-generation tool before making your request. As it is more user-friendly in this regard, I will provide a sample of how to create a language learning tool using Claude AI.
Let’s begin with a well-constructed prompt. When writing your prompt, it is important to provide as much detail as possible, be specific about your needs, and briefly introduce yourself to achieve the best possible outcome. You should include your language level, the skill you wish to practise, what exactly you aim to achieve, and how you would like to be guided or corrected. You may also focus on a particular skill, a specific topic or a test to prepare for. Here, you will find a sample prompt I generated to illustrate this approach. It is a very basic one, you may be even more detailed with yours. You can further refine and adapt it to suit your own needs. Claude also alows you to edit and refine your tool through an ongoing conversation. If you are not satisfied with a section, you can continue to revise it by requesting changes such as: “make the learning section longer,” “provide more examples,” “explain the rules in Turkish as well,” or “teach the rules in more detail,” and so on.
Here is the output I received in response to that initial prompt. As you see, this is the most basic draft of the tool generated. You may either use your tool directly within the Claude chat interface or download it and share it with others.
There are a few steps involved in downloading and sharing your tool. First, make sure that you have reviewed and finalised every aspect of your tool so that it is ready for use. Claude alows you to download the tool directly from the chat by clicking the options icon in the top-right corner. However, this is not the end of the process. At this stage, you will only receive the .html version of your tool.
Next, you will need to generate a shareable link for your code. For this step, you can sign up to this website for free. Click on “add new project” and drag and drp your .html file into the box at the bottom of the page. Then click “rename and deploy.” And voilà—you will have a link to your very own learning tool.
It may seem like a lengthy process at first, but once you try it, you will see how straightforward it is. Keep in mind that if you are going to use it for your own study, you do not need to download it — you can use it through Claude chat as well. You can even create your own listening or speaking practice tools in this way. All it takes is a little creativity. For instance, you could design a tool to learn idioms or phrasal verbs through films or TV series or ask AI to generate a playlist of songs that include examples of the passive voice. Let AI become your oyster in your language learning journey.
As I bring this blog to a close, I would like to remind you of one thing once again: thanks to AI, it is now possible to access a free “teacher” from the comfort of one’s home. While I believe we should acknowledge and make full use of technological advancements whenever possible, I also strongly maintain that a human teacher will always remain the most dependable guide in education. At the same time, it is important to remember that AI systems can still produce inaccurate information or halucinations. For this reason, although AI is undoubtedly a powerful tool, it should be seen as a supplement to education rather than a replacement for human educators.