Build an AI-Powered (and slightly gamified) Language Feedback App
This week, I played with AI-powered language assessment. Language assessment is something AI does well out of the box, and there are many apps and services that are solving the hard challenges around language learning like speaking and listening. So the goal here was just to see how an educator can add a little structure and little fun to a basic language reading app.
The app I ended up with allows students to select their preferred language and fluency level, then generates a short passage of text in that language. But in this case, it has been instructed to generate the text based on a source material I’ve provided: student intros. This takes it from a simple language translation exercise to a fun way to get to know your classmates.
How to Build it
1. Create a new blank app and give it a system prompt if you like. I didn’t give it a system prompt in this case. I pushed the temperature a little higher (1) than I normally do since I wanted creativity in how the AI adapts student intros.
2. Attach some context data. In this case, I ran the test with student bios I generated from ChatGPT, but you could do it with the week’s topic, or a historical figure, etc.
3. Build Phase 1 which generates a paragraph of text based on the student’s target language and fluency.
What is your native language (radio)
What is your fluency in that language (radio)
And the prompt:
I would like to assess my reading fluency while also trying to identify my classmate whose bios I've provided. Please choose a random male student from the document. (Please make sure it is random!) Please generate a short paragraph of text written in the first person and based on a classmate in the following language: {language} . Do NOT tell me the student's name.
The text should adhere to CEFR standards at level {fluency}.
Please just generate the paragraph without any preamble or post text. Build phase 2 which assesses the student’s translation and determines in this case if they chose the correct student.
Please translate the passage (long text)
Which classmate’s introduction did you read? (dropdown)
And the prompt:
Here is my translation of your paragraph:
===========
{translation}
===========
And I think that paragraph was about this classmate: {classmate}
Please assess what percentage of the text I've translated correctly. List up to three areas for improvement, if applicable. If it looks like my attempt was invalid or utterly wrong, just advise as such and tell me to try again at a different level or with a valid attempt.
Also, if I've chosen the wrong classmate, please tell me what the correct one is. Optionally, add some scoring. I just gave the user a point if they identified the correct classmate.
