Nearly half the world’s students are learning in the wrong language.
That’s right, according to UNESCO, 40% of learners worldwide are taught in a language they don’t fully understand.
So how can we help bridge the gap for such students?
7 Ways AI can Support our Students
1. Transform Content Into Games The way we deliver content to our students doesn’t have to be boring worksheets, or silent quizzes. AI can transform academic content into games that are engaging, and engrain the concept deeper far beyond mundane activities.
Prompt:
“Turn this lesson into a simple, engaging game for a multilingual learner—include clear rules, visual cues, and key vocabulary support to reinforce understanding.”
2. Structured Student Discussion
One of the most effective ways to embed a concept, and gain subject-specific-confidence is sharing on said topic. I would highly encourage you to give students the time to think, speak and connect in supported ways.
Prompt:
“Create a structured discussion activity for multilingual learners on this topic—include sentence starters, key vocabulary, and guided questions to support confident speaking.”
3. Insightful AI-Driven Data
An educator can save countless hours spent assessing and analysing their students’ work, by leveraging AI to do it for them. Not only is that time saved, but AI’s analysis tools are far superior to our own brain’s (the honest truth).
Prompt:
“Analyze this student work and generate clear insights—highlight strengths, language gaps, and actionable next steps for a multilingual learner.”
4. Generate Reflection Questions
Reflection builds metacognition, but it doesn’t need to be time-consuming. AI can quickly generate meaningful questions that help students think more deeply about what they’ve learned.
Prompt:
“Create 3 simple, thought-provoking reflection questions for this topic—include sentence starters and clear language to support multilingual learners.”
5. Differentiate Texts
Say goodbye to spending hours rewriting the same article at three different reading levels. AI can instantly adapt any material while preserving meaning and intent.
Prompt:
“Rewrite this text at a Grade 1 reading level—keep the meaning consistent while simplifying language, adjusting vocabulary, and clarifying sentence structure.” 6. Create Visual Supports
Multilingual Students thrive when key vocabulary and concepts are reinforced visually. Use AI to generate language-rich visuals that accurately depict your content.
Prompt:
“Generate a clear, descriptive image & chart for this topic—include key vocabulary, and simple explanations to aid multilingual learners.”
7. Text-to-Translated-Speech
I left this to last, as this should be used sparingly and intentionally. In the process of helping multilingual learners develop in every aspect of a language (speaking, listening, readining & writing), it may be required to use such a tool, so the student can understand.
*note: Don’t overuse, as the students will easily become over-dependent.
Prompt:
“Convert this text into natural spoken audio in [target language], with clear pacing and pronunciation to support multilingual comprehension.”
Why AI?
This isn’t about being “tech-savvy.”
It’s about enhancing what we’re already doing.
AI helps educators scale what already works, so a wider range of learners can access learning, more often.
That’s how we support learning and belonging.