Quick answer: English teachers are using AI mainly to save preparation time – drafting lesson plans, generating graded reading texts, building worksheets and writing model answers – rather than to teach for them. Used well, tools like ChatGPT, TeachPlanet and Twee turn an hour of planning into ten minutes; used badly, they produce bland, off-level material and tempt students to cheat. Below, TeachPlanet co-founder Patrick Fordham shares how AI is reshaping classrooms, and we add practical prompts, a tool comparison and answers to the questions teachers actually ask.
Artificial intelligence went from novelty to staffroom staple in barely two years. In a recent Global English YouTube interview, Annine Siddall sat down with Patrick Fordham, co-founder of TeachPlanet, to unpick what that actually means for the person standing in front of a class on Monday morning. This post keeps that interview as its backbone and builds practical guidance around it, so you leave with prompts and tools you can use this week – not just predictions.
How are English teachers using AI right now?
Talk to working TEFL teachers and the same handful of uses come up again and again. Almost none of them involve handing the class over to a robot. Instead, AI has quietly become the teaching assistant most of us never had:
- Lesson planning – turning a coursebook page or a topic into a staged lesson with warmer, presentation, practice and production.
- Generating and grading texts – rewriting a news article at A2, B1 and B2 so the same lesson works for a mixed-level group.
- Worksheets and questions – comprehension questions, gap-fills, discussion prompts and role-play cards in seconds.
- Model answers – a band-7 IELTS response or a sample email students can analyse and improve.
- Feedback and marking – a first pass on written work that you then check, personalise and moderate.
The pattern is clear: AI is strongest on the repetitive, time-hungry preparation that eats into a teacher’s evenings, and weakest at the human judgement of the classroom itself. Global bodies see it the same way – UNESCO’s guidance on AI in education frames these tools as an aid to teachers, used under human oversight, rather than a replacement for them.
AI lesson-planning: prompts that work
The quality of what you get out of a tool like ChatGPT depends almost entirely on the quality of what you put in. A vague request (“make me a lesson about food”) gives you a vague, generic lesson. The trick is to brief the AI the way you would brief a new teaching assistant: level, aim, time, class and format. Try a prompt built from these five ingredients:
- Level – “for a B1 (pre-intermediate) adult class”
- Aim – “to practise the present perfect for life experiences”
- Time – “a 60-minute lesson”
- Context – “8 students, online, who like travel”
- Format – “give me a warmer, a presentation stage, controlled practice and a speaking task”
Then refine. Ask it to grade the vocabulary down, to add a cue-card speaking activity, or to write three comprehension questions for the text. The real skill is not writing one perfect prompt – it is the back-and-forth, treating the AI as a draftsman while you stay the editor. Everything it produces still needs your eye: AI happily invents facts, pitches language at the wrong level and writes culturally tone-deaf examples, so nothing should reach your students unchecked. If you want a broader look at fitting technology into lessons without losing the human core, see our guide to technology in the TEFL and TESOL class.
Can AI replace English teachers?
This is the question every teacher secretly types into a search bar, and it is exactly where Fordham is most reassuring. AI can generate content and adapt it, but language learning is fundamentally social and motivational – it happens in the relationship between a learner and a teacher who notices when they are lost, bored, or ready to be pushed. AI does not build rapport, read a nervous silence, or celebrate the moment a shy student finally speaks.
What is changing is the shape of the job. The routine content-production part of teaching is being automated; the human parts – motivation, feedback, correction in the moment, cultural mediation – are becoming more, not less, valuable. The teachers who thrive will be the ones who let AI take the admin so they can spend more of the lesson actually teaching. A little playfulness helps here too, which is why so many of these tools pair naturally with active, game-based teaching – see how gamification can elevate your TEFL classes.
How to stop students cheating with AI (or use it well)
The flip side of teachers using AI is students using it – and a homework essay written by ChatGPT teaches them nothing. Fighting it with detectors is a losing battle; the detectors are unreliable and produce false accusations. The better strategy is to design tasks AI cannot do for the learner, and to teach AI use openly:
- Set more in-class and spoken production, where the language has to come from the student in real time.
- Ask for process, not just product – drafts, notes, a recorded reflection on what they changed and why.
- Make AI part of the task: have students generate a text, then critique and correct it, which is genuine, high-level language work.
- Personalise prompts to the learner’s own life and this week’s lesson, so a generic AI answer simply will not fit.
Used this way, a tool students might have used to cheat becomes a tool they use to learn.
Which AI tools are worth it for TEFL?
New tools appear weekly, but for English teaching a small core does most of the work. Here is an honest, at-a-glance comparison of the ones teachers reach for most in 2026:
| Tool | Best for | Free tier? | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | General lesson planning, texts, model answers | Yes | The all-rounder; only as good as your prompt |
| TeachPlanet | Ready-made lessons and teacher tools built for ELT | Yes | Education-specific, so less prompt-wrangling |
| Twee | Reading texts, questions and worksheets by level | Limited | Purpose-built for English teachers |
| Diffit | Grading one text to several levels for mixed classes | Limited | Great for differentiation |
| Canva Magic | Flashcards, slides and visual materials | Yes | For the design side of prep |
Start with one, learn its habits, and only add another when you hit its limits. A teacher fluent in one tool beats a teacher dabbling in five.
Inside the interview: TeachPlanet and the future of AI in the classroom
Watch the full interview on YouTube here. TeachPlanet is a platform built specifically to bring AI into teaching and learning, and Fordham walks through where it is heading:
1. Embracing the world of AI at TeachPlanet (00:50): Fordham sheds light on how the platform is embracing AI to enhance teaching methodologies, personalise learning and create a more dynamic educational environment.
2. Navigating trust in AI (03:30): The discussion turns to the pivotal question – can we trust AI, especially in education? Fordham argues that trust comes from keeping the teacher in the loop rather than handing over control.
3. The schooling system and AI adoption (11:07): Fordham shares his perspective on whether the schooling system has adequately embraced AI, and how integrating the technology is shaping the future of education.
4. Adapting lesson plans with AI (16:59): AI’s adaptability takes centre stage as Fordham discusses how it can tailor lesson plans to different students – from personalised learning paths to adaptive assessment – making education more inclusive and effective.
5. Accessing TeachPlanet’s AI-powered solutions (21:47): Fordham concludes with how educators and institutions can access the platform’s tools. Visit TeachPlanet’s website for more information.
Frequently asked questions
Is it cheating for students to use ChatGPT in English homework?
It depends how they use it. Passing off an AI-written essay as their own is cheating and teaches them nothing. But using AI to check their own work, generate ideas to react to, or get feedback on a draft they wrote can be genuinely useful. The answer is to teach AI use openly and design tasks – especially spoken and in-class work – that the student has to produce themselves.
What is the best AI tool for lesson planning?
For most teachers ChatGPT is the best all-round starting point because it is free and flexible, but the quality depends entirely on how you brief it. Education-specific tools such as TeachPlanet and Twee need less prompt-wrangling because they are built for teachers. Pick one, learn it well, and always check and adapt what it produces before class.
Will AI take English teaching jobs?
It is far more likely to change the job than to end it. AI is automating the time-consuming content-production side of teaching – planning, worksheets, model answers – while the human parts, such as motivation, real-time feedback and building rapport, are becoming more valuable. Teachers who use AI to handle the admin and spend more time actually teaching are the ones who will thrive.
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