7 Steps to Quickly Understand Any Technical Text with AI

Being a professional reader using this method will instantly make you sharper at discussions, presentations, and making decisions related to products and other important matters.

In my 15 years of practice since earning my Cambridge English Teacher Certification, their method to help language learners get into a foreign text always worked. But it always required a competent teacher. I’ve just turned it into a self-learning approach with AI that requires only a little more than a single reading and has extraordinary effects across cases.

See an example here: https://youtu.be/ndcZ9GaA8PM?si=tTYnKTMJX5e652kR

For context, the Cambridge CELTA approach usually has a teacher doing the research and conducting the activities.

1. pre-teach vocabulary: the teacher identifies, then creates and delivers an activity around key or complex vocabulary in the text
2. Gist reading: one or two questions to catch attention or check quick comprehension or meta strategies
3. Detailed reading: reading for a purpose, answering questions prepared by the teacher or course book
4. other related review or expansion activities

In my approach, the AI takes over some parts, while the learner manages others. The idea is a balance of learning integrity and automation to enable a self-directed learning path.

Dr. Josh’s Approach to Quickly Reading Complex Texts

How to Quickly Master any Technical Text in 2024

1. Ask AI for complex vocabulary with definitions and examples
2. Ask AI to create the summary
3. Read the summary, noting key words and concepts
4. Review the text — scan, skim, read in general, note vocabulary
5. Read the text in detail, make connections to goals
6. Ask AI to make comprehension, discussion and/or definition questions
7. Answer the questions and take further notes
8. Vocabulary from AI. Here’s an example prompt: “write a list of 20 complex and key words or concepts from the text” . Try that, and adjust the number and instructions depending on the type of text. But this is not enough, you should go further as the teacher would and ask it to “write definitions with example sentences for the 20 most complex and/or key words/phrases from the text”. You can even mimic a teacher and ask it to make a gap fill activity.
9. Summary from AI. Here’s an example prompt: “write a summary of the following text”. Having a summary of the text will naturally repeat some key words found in the above step, giving you more context while helping you prepare for the content.
10. Review Vocab and Summary. The Learner’s first turn. Take into account the limitations of the AI and your own reading patterns, the complexity of the vocabulary already offered, and your time. This can be done in a few minutes.
11. General Reading. Now it’s time to look at the text or the “gist reading” mentioned above. Note to see if the content matches the summary. Identify one or two key words or themes. Did you understand most of it? What is the general idea? If you don’t have a specific goal, then skip the next step. If you do have a specific goal, then the next step is the detailed reading.
12. Detailed Reading. What is the purpose of reading this text? It could be as specific as possible, or quite general. For example “I want to understand rotary engines and turbines” to “I want to know what happened in the latest celebrity scandal” and anything else. If you’re looking for something specific, then it’s important to state a goal.
13. Quiz or Question from AI. In this step, you ask the chatbot to make some comprehension, discussion, or specific review questions. These could be multiple choice, gap fill, matching, or other typical types. Example prompt “write 7 comprehension multiple choice questions about the text”.
14. Review questions, have discussions, check. Now it’s back over to the learner, making sure to complete the quiz (without help or cheating!) and if you had discussion questions created to have the discussions. You might need a partner for this and other types of activity.

That concludes the 7 Step Method using AI to quickly understand complex texts, whether they be technical, political, literary, or otherwise after one reading. With my method, you can quickly understand the key information you need and improve your language skills.