Product guide · PrepTalk team
PrepTalk: scaffold-first AI for language writing
PrepTalk is a structured writing environment for foreign-language learners. Teacher-designed activities organize the task; AI offers targeted feedback; learners develop and revise their own text.
Follow a writing activity- Purpose
- Guided foreign-language writing practice
- Approach
- Scaffold-first activities with AI feedback
- Pilot scope
- English and French · CEFR B1 and B2
- Availability
- In development for a controlled pilot
How does PrepTalk work?
A writing activity starts with a defined purpose, audience and task. Its sequence is authored in advance. Learners work through that sequence, practicing useful language and building the parts of their response before editing the complete text.
Understand the task
Identify what the task asks and, when relevant, what the source writer means.
Practice useful language
Work with expressions for the communicative task, such as agreeing, giving reasons or making a request.
Write and revise
Contribute your own ideas and sentences. Targeted feedback helps you address a missing or unclear part, with further attempts available.
Review the whole text
Accepted writing and useful phrases collect in a notepad. The final editor brings the learner’s text together for revision.
The number and order of stages vary by activity.
What does the feedback look like?
In the public forum-reply illustration, the learner needs to agree with a writer who says remote work offers more flexibility. A general statement of agreement leaves that specific idea unclear.
- Learner’s first response
- I agree that remote work is good.
- Illustrated hint
- You’ve shown agreement, but “good” is too general. What benefit does the writer describe?
- Learner’s revision
- I agree that remote work gives people more flexibility.
Illustrative example from the public product tour.
Who and what is the pilot designed for?
The pilot scope is English and French writing at CEFR B1 and B2. Activity families include forum opinions, replies to forum posts, and transactional emails. The public walkthrough follows an English forum reply.
The CEFR informs task design and language expectations. PrepTalk does not award a CEFR qualification or provide an official proficiency assessment. The homepage also illustrates guidance in Italian, Spanish and Catalan; these are previews beyond the pilot scope.
Why describe it as scaffold-first AI?
The learning task and the learner’s required contribution come first. AI assistance operates within that activity design. This makes the intended practice explicit: learners choose ideas, compose responses and revise, while the system supplies prompts, phrase practice and feedback.
A general chatbot can be prompted to act as a tutor. PrepTalk packages a defined writing journey into the application itself, including progression, saved learner writing and a final editor. The important question is what the learner actually does throughout the activity.
Can I use PrepTalk now?
PrepTalk is in development for a controlled pilot. The public site offers product illustrations, a phrase-practice example and a written activity walkthrough. Self-service learner access and the public interactive AI demo are not currently open.
Who is building it, and what evidence is available?
Ana Rosso leads research and pedagogy. Kyle Highsmith leads product and technology. Ana’s forthcoming Routledge chapter sets out the teaching model behind PrepTalk.
The research pages distinguish published background studies, product design choices and questions for future evaluation. PrepTalk has not established that its approach improves later independent writing. The dashboard shown on the homepage uses illustrative data.