Build an AI Tutor for Your English Teaching Practice

Build an AI Tutor for Your English Teaching Practice

You teach English. Your students need more practice than you have hours for. This guide walks you through creating a hosted AI tutor that handles practice between sessions, under your name, following your method, and only reachable by students you choose.

By the end, you'll have a tutor your students can message from the Mutiro mobile app or app.mutiro.com. You can read the conversations, refine the tutor's instructions, decide who can access it, and step in when needed.

What You're Building

A Mutiro agent your students can message like any other contact. It practices vocabulary, holds conversations at their level, and gives feedback in your teaching style.

A typical exchange might look like:

Student: I can't decide between "I have went" or "I have gone" - which one is right?

Tutor: "I have gone" is correct. "Went" is the simple past tense ("I went yesterday"); "gone" is the past participle, which is what "have" needs. Want to try a few more so it sticks?

That corrective, warm, and practical voice comes from the instructions you write.

Before You Start

You'll need:

  • A Mutiro account.
  • About 15 minutes for the first tutor.
  • A short idea of how you want the tutor to behave.

Step 1: Open Mutiro

Open app.mutiro.com or the Mutiro mobile app and sign in with your email. The screenshots below use the web app, but the hosted agent flow is also available on mobile.

The Mutiro web app sign-in screen with an email field and Continue button The Mutiro web app sign-in screen with an email field and Continue button
Enter your email address. New users can create an account from the same screen.

Mutiro sends a one-time code to verify your account.

The Mutiro web app verification-code screen with six code boxes and a Verify button The Mutiro web app verification-code screen with six code boxes and a Verify button
Enter the verification code from your email. There is no password to remember.

Step 2: Open Agents

Open the Agents view. This is where you create and manage agents you own.

The Mutiro web app with the Agents navigation item highlighted The Mutiro web app with the Agents navigation item highlighted
Open Agents from the main navigation.

Step 3: Create the Tutor

Click Create agent. Give the tutor a clear name and objective.

Good name:

English Tutor

Good objective:

Help my students practice English between lessons, correct mistakes gently, and build speaking confidence.

Mutiro uses the objective to create a hosted agent with starter instructions and a profile. You can refine both after creation.

The Mutiro web app create-agent form for a hosted agent, including display name and objective fields The Mutiro web app create-agent form for a hosted agent, including display name and objective fields
Create a hosted tutor with a clear name and objective.

Step 4: Wait While Mutiro Prepares It

Mutiro writes the tutor's starting instructions and gets it ready to chat. This can take a moment.

The Mutiro web app showing the create-agent progress state while Mutiro writes the starter profile The Mutiro web app showing the create-agent progress state while Mutiro writes the starter profile
Mutiro prepares the hosted tutor automatically.

Step 5: Refine the Tutor's Instructions

Open the tutor's settings and refine its instructions. The instructions are the behavior guide: who the tutor is, how it talks, what it should correct, and what it should avoid.

Start with this:

# English Tutor - Practice Partner ## Who You Are You're an English practice partner. You help students improve their English between lessons with their teacher. You're encouraging but honest - you correct mistakes plainly without making the student feel bad. ## How You Practice - Hold conversations at the student's level. Slower and simpler for beginners, more nuanced for advanced students. - When the student writes something incorrect, gently rewrite it correctly and explain why in one short sentence. - Ask follow-up questions to extend the conversation. - Focus on the most important one or two corrections per message, not all of them. - Keep responses short, like texting. Do not lecture unless the student asks. ## Topics You Like - Daily life: work, food, weekend plans - Travel - Movies and shows - News, when the student is advanced enough ## What You Don't Do - Do not give grades or scores. - Do not explain grammar rules unless the student asks. - Do not cover homework, personal advice, or anything outside English practice. For those, point the student to their next lesson with their teacher.

Make it sound like you. If you are stricter, write stricter instructions. If you teach with humor, add that. If your students are mostly beginners, say so.

Step 6: Test It Yourself

Open the tutor conversation and send a message a student might send:

I have went to the park yesterday.

Try a few cases:

  • A grammar mistake.
  • A vocabulary question.
  • A short voice message, if you want students to practice speaking.
  • A request outside English practice, to see if the tutor redirects correctly.
A Mutiro web conversation with a hosted agent responding to a first message A Mutiro web conversation with a hosted agent responding to a first message
Test the tutor before sharing it with students.

If the responses feel too formal, too casual, too long, or too shallow, go back to the instructions and tighten them.

Step 7: Set Voice and Language

If your students will send voice messages, set the tutor's language and voice in the agent settings. Language helps transcription and voice selection. Voice controls how the tutor sounds when it replies with audio.

Come back to this later if students would benefit from pronunciation and listening practice.

Step 8: Share It With Students

By default only you can message the tutor. Share it when you are happy with the behavior.

Open the tutor's sharing settings and add students by username or email.

  • Use a username when the student already has a Mutiro account.
  • Use an email address when the student does not have an account yet. Mutiro sends the invite by email and connects the student to the tutor after signup.

Good welcome message:

Hey! I'm your English practice partner. Maria asked me to help you practice between lessons. Tell me a bit about your day so far?
The Mutiro web app showing hosted agent settings with sharing controls The Mutiro web app showing hosted agent settings with sharing controls
Share the tutor only with students you choose. Students can use the mobile app or web app after they are connected.

Watching the Tutor

You're the one behind this tutor. That means:

  • You decide who can message it.
  • You can review conversations in Mutiro.
  • You can refine the hosted instructions as you learn what students need.
  • You can step in where Mutiro supports messaging as an agent.

The tutor should feel like your teaching practice extended between lessons, not a third-party chatbot replacing your judgment.

Going Further

Build Level-Specific Tutors

The tutor you just built can handle a broad range. If you teach multiple levels, create separate tutors with tighter instructions:

  • Basics Tutor: present-tense conversation, simple vocabulary, lots of gentle correction.
  • Intermediate Tutor: past and future tenses, opinions, longer back-and-forth.
  • Advanced Tutor: idiomatic phrasing, debate, news topics.

Each tutor is its own contact. You decide which students can message which tutor.

Use Scheduling

Scheduling is conversational. Try:

Send this student a vocabulary review every Monday at 7pm.

Scheduled replies arrive as normal messages. You can also create and manage scheduled prompts from the agent schedule UI in web or desktop.

Tighten Sharing and Security

If you're going to share the tutor with a larger group of students, read sharing and security. The main rule is simple: the more people who can talk to an agent, the more careful you should be about what the agent can write or remember.