Language Learning
How I Prompt AI Differently Because I'm an ESL Writer
A real story about two identical AI prompts producing very different grades — and what it revealed about the difference between polishing writing and actually closing the gap between thinking and expressing it in English.
How I Prompt AI Differently Because I'm an ESL Writer
By Jinwon Jang
8/2/2026
The Assumption Baked Into Most AI Advice
My English major roommate finished writing a 3-page essay. Her face almost kissed the monitor after spending 5 hours straight on the writing. The due date was tonight. She needed a nearly perfect grade to pass the class. I suggested, "Just use AI for proofreading." She agreed. Instead of going to the writing center to proofread, she gave AI a specific prompt to complete her assignment in time. I also finished my paper and followed the same process as my roommate. However, I received a much lower grade than she did — even though I'd spent more time writing than she had. I questioned myself. Did I use the wrong prompt? No, I used the exact same prompt my roommate used. So what was the issue?
What Native Speakers Prompt For vs. What I Prompt For
I read my rough draft again, then read my roommate's version. Mine was rough — too many vague sentences, awkward phrasing, unnatural word choices. AI could refine some of it, but it couldn't fix all of it. Of course — I'm an ESL learner. This had become such a routine part of my writing that I wasn't even surprised anymore.
My roommate's desk was stacked with classic literature — Hamlet, Pride and Prejudice, Crime and Punishment. Her draft was already full of well-crafted sentences; all she needed was polish for accuracy. My approach had been wrong from the start. Instead of asking AI to polish my writing, I should have asked it to help close the gap between my thinking and my ability to express that thinking in English. The prompt wasn't the problem. My writing was.
What I actually needed wasn't polish. I needed help expressing the idea itself.
The Specific Difference in My Prompts
Native speaker and general writer prompts sound like this: "Make this sound better." "Rewrite this to feel more natural." "Add personality and idioms." These assume the ideas and grammar are already there — they just need style, tone, and polish.
What I actually need is different: "Help me bridge my thinking into English — not just fix the grammar, tell me why it works." The gap isn't style. It's turning a fully-formed idea into English that carries it.
Native speakers and general writers typically ask AI things like "Make this sound better," "Rewrite this to feel more natural," or "Add personality and idioms." These prompts work fine for them — their rough draft is already doing its job, with no confusion about delivering the message to the audience.
ESL writers face a different problem. If I can't yet express the idea itself in English, perfect grammar and natural wording won't fix that — because the writing was never the issue. The thinking was already there; the expression wasn't.
Same tool, different problem. That's why the same prompt can't solve both.
Why This Distinction Matters Beyond Just Writing
Without a prompt that signals you're an ESL learner, most AI tools — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini — default to working only on grammar and phrasing. They rarely touch the actual gap between having an idea and expressing it in writing.
As an ESL learner, I've never had trouble filling a page. My papers come out a full page, 12-point font, single-spaced, without effort. I've never had an issue with ideas. Once a reader understands what I'm trying to say, they never question the idea itself. As evidence: across six English courses, not one professor ever told me my ideas were the problem. What they said, consistently, was that my sentences were awkward.
If you're an ESL learner reading this, here's what I want you to take away: we need a customized prompt — one built to close the gap between idea and expression — not just one that fixes grammar. We are not bad thinkers. We just don't know how to express it yet.
FAQ
Do ESL writers need different AI prompts than native speakers?
Yes. It's not just about asking AI to polish grammar and phrasing — the prompt also needs to catch awkward sentences that reveal a real gap between the idea and how it's expressed, not just surface-level errors.
What's the biggest mistake ESL learners make when prompting AI?
Only asking AI to polish grammar and structure. This can actually backfire — if a sentence still sounds awkward in a way that doesn't match the sophistication of the surrounding writing, professors may assume AI was used to write the whole thing, even when it wasn't.
Can AI help non-native speakers sound natural without losing their voice?
Yes and no. With a specific enough prompt, AI can produce writing that sounds natural. But it still needs one final human pass — your own judgment — before it's really done.
Is there a difference between "fixing grammar" prompts and "ESL-specific" prompts?
Surprisingly, the difference comes down to just a few extra words — specifically asking AI to close the gap between your idea and its expression, not just clean up the sentence.