9 Ways to Use ChatGPT for Language Learning

This article explores a variety of different ways to use ChatGPT to learn and practice a language, including example conversations with prompts you can copy and use yourself.

In this article, we’ve used examples that involve prompting ChatGPT in English to practice Spanish. But ChatGPT can respond in just about any language, so you could just as well, for example, prompt it in Portuguese to help you with your English.

Learning vocabulary

You can use ChatGPT to learn vocabulary relevant to the topic you’re studying.

Afterward, you can practice the vocabulary directly with ChatGPT in an interactive format.

Asking for a translation

You can directly ask ChatGPT to translate sentences for you.

You can also ask it to provide a selection of alternative translations, to see how the same ideas can be expressed in different ways.

This can help you to recognize patterns, thus improving your understanding of the language.

Explaining an example sentence

You can have ChatGPT explain the structure of a sentence to you or label the words used as specific parts of speech.

First, an example of how ChatGPT can clarify the structure of a sentence.

We can also ask ChatGPT for more detail about individual words in the sentence.

Explaining grammar and usage

Let’s say you don’t understand why the subject is often omitted in Spanish sentences. You can also ask ChatGPT to explain specific grammatical rules and concepts like this.

Creating personalized exercises

You can also have ChatGPT create personalized exercises on a topic of your choice.

Bear in mind that ChatGPT is not always trustworthy. An exercise generated in this way may contain errors or may not exactly line up to what you asked for, depending on the complexity of your request.

Using ChatGPT as a conversation partner

You can, of course, use ChatGPT as a virtual conversation partner. Conversational practice is a key part of language learning, so having a virtual partner you can practice with at any time is incredibly helpful.

Asking for common expressions

To make your conversation sound more natural, it’s important to understand common expressions, phrases, and idioms. You can ask ChatGPT to provide examples and definitions of common expressions in different variants of the language (e.g., Peruvian Spanish).