10 Prompts for ChatGPT to Improve Your English Skills

The recent development of artificial intelligence is an incredible opportunity for English learners, not just simply to use AI to produce writing, but even more importantly to use AI as a coach for improvement.

In this lesson, I'll provide you with 10 prompts that you can use with ChatGPT or other AI platforms to help you improve your English. You can copy the text of the prompts from this lesson and then paste the prompt into ChatGPT to get the desired result.

This lesson is organized into the objective of the prompts, and include the following:

• Speaking Practice

• Correcting Mistakes

• Building Vocabulary and Phrases

• Testing

Speaking Practice

For speaking practice, you'll need to use the option on ChatGPT that can access your microphone. Usually you can find a small image of a microphone where you write text).

This way, ChatGPT can hear what you say and turn your spoken words into text, like a transcript of what you said. Then it will respond to the text transcript of what you said.

Prompt 1: "Please ask me questions related to the topic of (something) so that I can use vocabulary and phrases related to this topic in my response. Give me feedback after each response to tell me if I used the vocabulary and phrases correctly"

If you want to improve your speaking, it's a good idea to focus on speaking in certain situations and contexts. First, ask ChatGPT for a list of vocabulary words and phrases related to a specific topic, such as "money", "daily routines", or "weather".

Then use prompt 1 above to get questions related to that topic and use the vocabulary and phrases in your answers. This will help you remember the words/phrases and speak more fluently about the topic.

Example

• Step 1: "Provide me with some useful vocabulary and phrases related to the topic of money."

• Step 2: "Please ask me questions related to the topic of money so that I can use vocabulary and phrases related to this topic in my response. Give me feedback after each response to tell me if I used the vocabulary and phrases correctly"

Prompt 2: "Please ask me questions one-by-one that allow me to practice using (grammar point) in my responses. After I send you each spoken response, please give me feedback and any necessary correction."

Some grammatical structures in English are difficult to say. Students often feel like they know how to say something correctly but have difficulty when they need to say it in real life.

The solution to this problem is repetition. If you have an opportunity to use the same grammatical structure again and again, it will become habitual and you'll be able to use it much more easily in real life.

This prompt allows you to get repeated practice using certain language structures, such as practicing present perfect continuous tense ("I have been + ing" or "he has been + ing") or third conditionals about the imaginary past ("if I had known, I would have..." or "if we hadn't bought it, we would have....")

Example:

• "Please ask me questions one-by-one that allow me to practice using "should have and shouldn't have" in my responses. After I send you each spoken response, please give me feedback and any necessary correction. "

If you don't know which grammar point to request, let ChatGPT decide which one to do by using this prompt:

• "Ask me a series of 10 questions one-by-one that focuses on a particular grammar point and then move on to another grammar point, so that I am practicing different structures with each set of 10 questions"

If you use the prompt above, ChatGPT will be able to find out (and you too) which grammatical points in English you need help and practice with.

Prompt 3: "Please ask me a question that I can answer by speaking. Then, keep responding with follow-up questions like we are having a conversation. Also, you can answer any questions that I ask you. At the end of our conversation, when I say we are finished, please give me feedback and correction on my responses"

This prompt will give you practice with conversation by giving you repeated casual questions that you have to answer. You can also ask questions as part of the conversation to practice your question form.

It's a good idea to have some useful phrases that you want to try to use in conversation in front of you while you do this so that you can practice using these phrases.

Bonus: you can adapt this prompt for specific situations, such as "make this a conversation with other parents at my kids school" or "make this a conversation with my coworkers at a company party". This can help ChatGPT understand the context of the conversation that you want to practice.

Correcting Mistakes

Prompt 4: "My native language is (language). Create a quiz for me based on the most common mistakes that people with my native language make in English. Evaluate my quiz and explain my incorrect answers so that I can learn and avoid these mistakes in the future."

This is a great way to discover where translation from your native language is causing problems for you in English. It's hard to know these mistakes without discovering them through an exercise or quiz like this. Asking for an explanation about mistakes will help you avoid these mistakes in the future.

You could also ask ChatGPT "please create a review test for me based on all of the wrong answers that I've had from these quizzes in the past" and then you can get a quiz that reviews all your mistakes to see if you've learned from them.

Example:

• "My native language is Chinese. Create a quiz for me based on the most common mistakes that people with my native language make in English. Evaluate my quiz and explain my incorrect answers so that I can learn and avoid these mistakes in the future."

• (after you've done a few quizzes): "Please create a review test for me based on all of the wrong answers that I've had from these quizzes in the past."

Prompt 5: "Is it correct to say (phrase)? If not, please explain why it's wrong and what I should say instead"

This prompt will tell ChatGPT that you not only want to know if the phrase is correct or not, but if it's incorrect you want an explanation. The explanation can help you understand the mistake and avoid making the mistake again. It can also provide you with the correct phrase to use in the future.

Example:

• "Is it correct to say "I'm nervous because I am not used to speak in English?"

  Answer from ChatGPT: "No it's not correct because the word "to" in this phrase is a preposition so it must be followed by a verb in "ing" form. The correct phrase here is "I am not used to speaking in English"

Prompt 6: Please read the following text that I've written, identify mistakes in it, and provide corrections with explanations for each mistake (then enter your text here).

This prompt will help ChatGPT know that you are looking to learn from mistakes in your written text rather than just correction.

It will provide you with necessary corrections and an explanation for each one to help you understand why your language is wrong and how to fix it.

Bonus: after you read the corrections, try writing the same message again but with the corrections included now in order to see if you remembered the corrections. This will help you avoid making the same mistakes in the future. You can even ask ChatGPT when submitting the second time: "did I correct all of the mistakes from last time?"

Example:

• Please read the following text that I've written, identify mistakes in it and provide corrections with explanations for each mistake "I would like to make a party at Friday for celebrate John's birthday."

  Answer from ChatGPT: 1) "make a party" → "have a party " In English, we usually say “have a party” rather than “make a party.” 2) "at Friday" → "on Friday" We use “on” with days of the week, not "at". 3) "for celebrate" → "to celebrate" After “for,” you need a noun (“for the celebration”), but here you want to use a verb, so you should use the infinitive verb “to celebrate” instead.

Building Vocabulary and Phrases

Prompt 7: "Provide me with a list of the most common jargon, collocations, and idioms related to (topic)"

This prompt will help ChatGPT understand that you are looking for the real language that is used in a certain field so that you are prepared for conversations when you start working or interacting with people in this field.

Examples

• "Provide me with a list of the most common jargon, collocations, and idioms related to meetings"

  Answer from ChatGPT: agenda, participants, minutes, action items, set up a meeting, hold a meeting, put off a meeting, wrap up a meeting, set the agenda, invite participants, raise a point, take minutes

Prompt 8: Which verbs collocate with (noun)? / Which prepositions collocate with (word)?

This prompt will tell ChatGPT that you are looking for the correct words to combine with another word, which are called "collocations".

Collocations are an important part of English and essential to doing well on tests. An example of a collocation is "take a break", whereas "do a break" is incorrect because it's not a collocation.

Examples:

• Which verbs collocate with "research"?

  Answer from ChatGPT: conduct research, carry out research, do research, perform research

• Which prepositions collocate with "depend"?

  Answer from ChatGPT: "depend on", such as "I depend on her" or "it depends on the weather"

Test Practice

Prompt 9: "Please create a practice exercise for (Part) of (Test Name) and include answers and explanations for the answers at the end"

This prompt will allow you to prepare for an English exam and focus on the specific parts of that exam that you have the most difficulty with.

Example:

• "Please create a practice exercise for Reading Part 3 of the IELTS test and include answers and explanations for the answers at the end"

Prompt 10: "Please ask me some questions similar to those on the (Test Name) speaking test so that I can answer them verbally and then provide me with feedback on my answer and how to improve it"

This prompt will allow you to practice answering the types of questions that you will receive on tests such as IELTS or CELPIP and also receive feedback on how well you answered the questions.

Example:

• "Please ask me some questions similar to those on the (Test Name) speaking test so that I can answer them verbally and then provide me with feedback on my answer and how to improve it"

In summary, ChatGPT and other AI platforms provide an extraordinary opportunity for you to get personalized help and support with learning English. Use these 10 prompts and then start to create your own prompts to help you learn faster and more effectively even without a teacher or class.