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I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – I think Artificial Intelligence can be helpful to English Language Learners, students who are learning disabled, and to teachers preparing materials and reference letters.

Those aren’t nothing, but they don’t appear to be enough for the AI companies trying to push their products into every facet of education.

On top of that, I think there are free or very, very low-cost ways for teachers to utilize AI in the ways I think it’s helpful.

Here is a collection of the sites that I think are most helpful to ELLs and their teachers, and are either completely free or very low cost:

For creating materials, whether they be text, video, games or audio, check out The Best Free AI-Powered Multi-Use Tools For Teachers.  Wayground (formerly Quizizz) is especially good (see Quizizz Lets You Use AI To Create Interactive YouTube Videos Once Again After Having To Stop Last Year – I Think It’s One Of The Most Helpful Ways To Use AI).

Another great tool for creating digital materials is this one: Google Has Often Failed At AI, But They Have Hit It Out Of The Park – For ELLs, At Least – With New “Storybook”

PDF2Audio “converts PDFs into an audio podcast, lecture, summary and others.” This could be useful for ELL teachers to turn texts into clozes (using ChatGPT) and then have students listen to the audio version. Teachers could use GoogleNotebookLM to do something similar.

Here’s another useful tool for material creation: This “Bilingual View” Tool Can Be Helpful To Language & Content Teachers Alike

If you’re a teacher and looking for instructional advice, you can  Try Out My New Free AI Chatbot For ELL Teachers.

For student reading, explore this site: AIR Language Looks Like A Very Good Site For English Language Learners

Here’s a great tool for ELLs who need to do research: “ReadInTwo” Provides Bilingual “Parallel Text” For Any Webpage

For content teachers who have ELL Newcomers dropped in their classes, these tools could help with translation:

Wow! Microsoft Translator Has Really Improved & Can Even Be More Helpful In The Classroom

Google Unveils Advance That Brings Us Closer To Star Trek’s “Universal Translator”

There are several decent free AI chatbots designed for teaching languages.  I think they can be helpful to students at home where there might not be others who speak English:

“Chicky” Looks Like A Good Language-Learning AI Tool, & It’s Free (For Now, At Least)

“Talk To Dai” Seems Like A Decent AI-Powered Language Learning Tool, & It’s Free (At Least, For Now)

Lingoflip Seems Like A Useful Tool For ELLs To Learn Vocabulary & Practice Pronunciation

“Accentta” Appears To Be A Free – For Now – Tool Where Students Can Practice Pronunciation

“Hello Nabu” Looks Like One Of The Best Free AI-Powered Language Learning Tools That I’ve Seen So Far

Quill  is an excellent writing tool that uses AI for adaptive learning, and has been doing so for a few years. Thousands of teachers are using it with their students, as I did, but I think many of us don’t typically think of it as an AI tool.

BONUS:

I often used Groovelit in class (see How I’m Using The Groovelit Game Now & How I Hope To Use It In The Future).

I also paid for Speakable: I Suspect That “Speakable” Is Going To Become A VERY Popular Online Tool For ELLs – If It Isn’t Already…

Let me know what you think I’m missing!