On the way to the ÖSD certificate:

Artificial intelligence in german lessons – digital help with ÖSD exam preparation   

Which competences should be taught? Which skills are important? Is artificial intelligence (AI) replacing teaching? Can it support teachers? Questions upon questions lead to uncertainty among teachers. But one thing is clear: artificial intelligence should support people and create new opportunities  

That’s why we want to show you how you can use AI to optimally prepare german learners for an ÖSD exam. 

Artificial intelligence enables machines and computer programmes to perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. These tasks include image recognition, language comprehension and decision-making. AI can therefore help you in many ways – including when learning and teaching german. 

Differentiation in ÖSD exam preparation 

In the teaching context, AI can be used to customised the teaching material to the language skills and needs of the learners by recording their level of knowledge and identifying learning gaps. This very often involves the use of learning analytics. 

However, prepared materials can also be adapted with the help of AI. For example, you can transform an article you have written into simpler language within seconds. There is therefore no such thing as too difficult or too easy – new possibilities for internal differentiation in language lessons are opening up.

Reading & listening – using AI to promote receptive skills when learning German 

Would you like to focus on practising receptive skills in your german lessons? Then why not use the option to have the AI generate texts in german? Generated texts are particularly helpful if a specific topic is to be covered, such as cooking. To do this, enter a command, also known as a prompt, in an AI tool of your choice. Think carefully about the topic, style and length of the text. It is also important to ensure that the language level of the learners is taken into account in the prompt. Specifying the desired language level is not always enough to actually get a suitable text. Terms such as ‘simple language’, ‘level A2’ or ‘language of a german learner’ can help here. 

In ÖSD exams, reading tasks are carried out in different formats. The most common are true-false, multiple-choice and matching tasks depending on the learning objective and the desired text comprehension, you can choose to develop tasks yourself or have them generated by the AI. Simple, fast and not complicated – let us help you teach and learn german.    

Artificial intelligence can also provide support with regard to the receptive skill of listening. For example, you can have texts read aloud or translate videos from one language into another. Similar to the reading tasks, questions can be created by the learner or generated by the AI.   

Writing & speaking – practising productive skills for the ÖSD exam with the help of AI  

Productive skills can also be promoted with the help of AI. Wondering how?  

On the one hand, it is possible to provide large language models such as CoPilot or ChatGPT with a (German) text and have it checked for spelling. If the AI finds errors, learners can have these explained to them in terms of grammar and problems. This is a great help for learners to check texts for formal correctness. Nevertheless, it is important to discuss text formalities and stylistics as well as other possible requirements with your learners. 

For example, images can be generated to improve the productive skill of speaking and thus optimally prepare for the ÖSD exam. This can be a great support in your teaching, especially in the context of a given topic.  Are you talking about home furnishings, and would you like to have certain objects in the room? No problem – ask an AI module of your choice to create an image for you. Are you talking about robotics and artificial intelligence? With a prompt, you will have images that match your ideas. An image description by the AI is another way to show German learners what else they should pay attention to. Because in the ÖSD exam, the images must be described precisely, a general impression is not enough. The image can also be seen as input for a more in-depth discussion. In this context, it is therefore important to familiarise yourself with the respective examination format and thus know the specific requirements. These can then be further deepened with the help of a suitable prompt. 

Artificial intelligence can therefore be used to save time and focus on the pedagogical skills in your german lessons. Support your learners with questions about the german language and use different methods to actively and playfully prepare your learners for the upcoming ÖSD exam.   

We wish you and your german learners every success in preparing for the next ÖSD exam.