C-LARA

Based on our initial experiments with pedagogical picture stories (“Supermodel Lisa”, etc), I’ve been discussing with ChatGPT-4o the possibility of creating a complete book, tentatively entitled Heroes of English Grammar. Here is the AI’s preliminary table of contents, together with a mockup of the cover:

Detective Diego Loves Direct and Indirect Speech

• Detective Diego solves mysteries using clues hidden in conversations. He explains how to report speech directly and indirectly.

Chef Clara Loves Countable and Uncountable Nouns

• Chef Clara teaches her kitchen staff the difference between countable and uncountable nouns through her recipes and cooking tips.

Pilot Priya Loves Prepositions of Place and Time

• Pilot Priya navigates the skies and explains prepositions of place and time while describing her flights and travel schedule.

Nurse Nia Loves Past Tenses

• Nurse Nia shares stories from the hospital, illustrating the use of past simple, past continuous, and past perfect tenses.

Scientist Satoshi Loves Conditional Sentences

• Scientist Satoshi conducts experiments and uses conditional sentences to explain possible outcomes and hypotheses.

Teacher Thandi Loves Question Forms

• Teacher Thandi engages her students in classroom activities, showing the correct way to form various types of questions.

Architect Amir Loves Relative Clauses

• Architect Amir designs buildings and uses relative clauses to describe his blueprints and construction plans.

Librarian Lina Loves The Passive Voice

• Librarian Lina explains the passive voice through stories about books being borrowed, returned, and recommended.

Journalist Jamal Loves Reported Speech

• Journalist Jamal reports on news events and uses reported speech to convey statements made by different people.

Gardener Grace Loves Comparatives and Superlatives

• Gardener Grace compares different plants and gardening techniques, teaching comparatives and superlatives.

Artist Aisha Loves Adjectives and Adverbs

• Artist Aisha describes her paintings and art techniques using a variety of adjectives and adverbs.

Musician Miguel Loves Modal Verbs

• Musician Miguel explains the use of modal verbs while talking about his music lessons, practice routines, and concerts.

Historian Hana Loves Present Perfect Tense

• Historian Hana discusses historical events and their impact on the present, using the present perfect tense.

Firefighter Farid Loves Gerunds and Infinitives

• Firefighter Farid explains the use of gerunds and infinitives while recounting his heroic rescues and fire drills.

Zookeeper Zhi Loves Subject-Verb Agreement

• Zookeeper Zhi takes care of animals and ensures subject-verb agreement in his descriptions of their behaviours and habitats.

Explorer Elena Loves Conjunctions

• Explorer Elena narrates her adventures around the world, using conjunctions to connect her exciting experiences.

Doctor Dalia Loves Future Tenses

• Doctor Dalia talks about her plans for medical advancements and patient care, using various future tenses.

Fashion Designer Fiona Loves Articles

• Fashion Designer Fiona discusses her latest collections and the correct use of definite, indefinite, and zero articles.

Baker Bella Loves Phrasal Verbs

• Baker Bella creates delicious treats and explains phrasal verbs in the context of her baking process.

and, last but not least,

Non-Binary Noboru Explains Why They Love Personal Pronouns

• Non-binary Noboru shares their daily experiences and highlights the importance of using the correct personal pronouns.

I think it would take no more than a couple of weeks to do, and if we had suitable informants available we could quickly produce multiple editions with different annotation languages.

What do people think?