Paula Suparo

Paula Suparo is an Argentinian English teacher, graduated from I.S.F.D. N° 41, and holds a diploma in Environmental Education and School Projects. She completed Global Skills and PBL Oxford courses. Paula currently teaches at a primary school and a private language institute, with experience across all age groups and contexts. 

Talking Stories: Using GenAI Chatbots to Foster Questioning and Critical Thinking.

The integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) chatbots poses challenges for educators, yet also offers powerful opportunities to enrich classroom practices. This presentation focuses on practical uses of chatbots in story-related activities designed to develop students’ questioning skills, fostering deeper engagement and critical thinking at various levels. Participants will see examples of student work, teacher insights, and tested strategies that highlight the pedagogical value of GenAI tools in enhancing inquiry-based learning and developing critical thinking. Furthermore, adaptable approaches for diverse institutional contexts will be shared.

While Generative AI chatbots have shown potential in supporting language learning (Haristiani, 2019; Kim et al., 2019), their use in EFL classrooms remains underexplored (Kim, 2020). This session presents an empirical project that integrates a customized, ChatGPT-based chatbot into literature-based activities to foster inquiry-based learning and language development. The project was implemented across diverse EFL contexts—face-to-face and virtual—ranging from primary school children to senior learners.

The chatbot supported students through all reading stages (pre-, while-, and post-reading), encouraging them to ask purposeful questions, solve mysteries, and engage critically with texts. Students worked with age-appropriate stories (e.g., The Speckled Band, Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination) and used the chatbot to collect clues, conduct AI interviews with fictional characters, and collaboratively build visual tools like crime boards. In primary classrooms, the chatbot also served as an image creator and storytelling companion, demonstrating its versatility across contexts.

Carefully designed prompts and character roles helped guide student interaction, with teachers acting as facilitators while students took center stage as meaning-makers. Beyond developing questioning and thinking skills, the project highlighted how student curiosity and interpretation shaped each chatbot exchange, transforming it into a responsive learning partner. Challenges related to access, connectivity, and language proficiency were noted, but flexible planning allowed successful implementation across varied learning environments.