I love to teach language learners how to write, from grammar and sentence structure to unity, clarity, and cohesion. As they advance, I ask them to check for rhythm and pacing, delete redundancies, and charge their writing with words that pop from the page into their readers’ imaginations. I show them how to carefully craft their sentences to persuade their audiences. Nothing makes me happier than to see these elements emerge in my students’ papers.
And, of course, writing and critical thinking go hand in hand. Students take what I teach them to analyze others’ work, be it an article in a magazine, newspaper, or academic journal. They tuck away what they like for future use, and identify weaknesses and how to fix them. The pride shows on their faces as they work. And that sure feels great!
But there’s a change that is creeping, or rather, rushing into this scenario. Generative AI is taking away the pleasure I get from teaching these skills because countless students rely on it to enhance their sentences and even write entire passages and assignments for them, before they’ve learned the fundamentals of the craft. Sure, there are students that are still keen to learn, and I cling to them like life rafts, but I am nervous about what lies ahead.
Whether it’s ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, Gemini, or Google Translate, students are never more than a click away from AI. I show them the benefits of it and integrate it into class activities. I am, in part, an AI enthusiast and am well aware of its important contributions to language learning. As co-chair of TESL Toronto’s recent Technology for Teachers Conference, I had renowned AI expert, Eric Curts, as our keynote speaker, and he shared an incredible array of tools that you can check out here.
Nevertheless, I spend a lot of time explaining to my students why they shouldn’t use GenAI to generate writing for their assessments. I remind them how important it is to use their own sentence structures, words, and ideas so that they can learn and nurture their reading, writing, and critical-thinking skills, not to mention their confidence. Some listen while others ignore me and continue to use AI because they are too stressed, busy, insecure, or a combination of all three, to do the work on their own.
Our students seem to be on a precipice, teetering between a life of critical thought and self-improvement and one with easier, less-complicated paths. This is not surprising, given the insatiable demand for instant results that has permeated society. We scroll through reels, buy things online, message our friends, and watch episodes on Netflix–often simultaneously. We have trackers that tell us how long we spend each day on our devices and yet, we don’t or can’t stop.
What did we use to do with all that time? There’s no doubt that we spent at least some of it living more deeply with our thoughts rather than clicking the surface with our fingertips. Many of our students have grown up in this age of “instant gratification” and they are hooked. Now, more than ever, we need to show them the value of being human, of developing their skills so that they can outshine the would-be automatons by cultivating a meaningful, confident and nuanced relationship to each other and the world.
One way to do this is to develop curricula where skills are developed and outcomes assessed through live, on-the-spot debates and dialogues in response to podcasts, articles, and videos that resonate with our classes, and they help to choose. We can also provide writing prompts where students demonstrate their grammar and sentence structure while critically reading and evaluating the content of articles and other media.
How about you? What ideas do you have for rekindling human thought and connections? Please share your insights.
Jennifer Hutchison
I’m Jennifer Hutchison and I teach EAP and communications at George Brown College in Toronto. I have also taught courses in sociolinguistics in the English Foundation Program at Toronto Metropolitan University. In my spare time, I write short stories, read, exercise, and bake (the last two are codependent). Teaching English is my passion. I am curious about the world around me and feel fortunate to have that world brought to me every day in the classroom. Nevertheless, I took a circuitous route to discover this passion. After my undergraduate degree in French and translation, I worked as a translator and then veered off into writing and editing, which I did from home while I raised my children (four of them!). In none of these positions (except, possibly, childrearing) was I helping anybody, so I returned to school, launched my ESL career, and have never looked back. I look forward to working with you and sharing experiences and strategies on the Blog!