Overview

Recently, at a Chartered Institute of Linguists’ (CIOL) Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event, Maria Elena Metaxas presented via webinar about the top trends in educational research and their practical implications in the classroom. Her goal was to emphasise the need for educators to stay informed and updated about trends, especially those related to new and improving technologies and emerging methodologies.

She focused on 6 key trends:

AI in Education

Ever-increasingly, educational research and survey data show that AI chatbots and similar tools are being used more frequently. Not only do they act as personalised learning aids, but they also provide on-demand support, data analysis, lesson creation, and automatic grading.

AI chatbots can be used in the classroom during breakout (small group) sessions or at home when an educator’s access is limited. For self-guided learners who are not part of an educational programme, this AI chatbot can fill the role of a teacher and a language practice partner.

From an educator’s perspective, these tools can do some of the heavy lifting during lesson planning (or even lesson creation). While a human eye/touch is still needed to ensure the AI moves down the right path and produces something of value, it can take over some of the time-intensive steps that occur during planning.

Neuroeducation

By using knowledge of how learning is achieved on a biological level and adjusting teaching methods, we can teach effectively and satisfy individual cognitive needs, thereby emphasising smaller and more personalised learning groups.

Different learners learn through various methods (e.g. visual, aural, oral, or most likely a combination), and it is paramount to understand which techniques help learners learn and retain information more efficiently and effectively.

Micro-learning

Recent data shows that rather than long class sessions, most people find micro-learning or learning through short, focused bursts more effective in retaining information. Apps and podcasts help to use spaced repetition, allowing learners to pick up on concepts faster and practice them more often.

This is one of the reasons why short-form learning, such as short videos on TikTok and YouTube, and longer videos on such platforms by language educators and communicators are so popular and important to the language-learning process.

Extended reality (XR)

XR, which includes virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), is still largely experimental, but it is starting to be used, especially in higher-education classrooms. This gives students “real-world” experience without necessarily being in the real world.

Many situations could be modelled in XR to help students prepare for the real world. Examples include registering your address with authorities in Germany, grocery shopping in China, or explaining how to get somewhere in South Africa.

Gamification and language apps

Recent trends in language learning apps show that games keep learners more engaged than traditional apps. With the inclusion of AI by apps such as Babbel and Duolingo, games and social elements motivate learners through competition, interaction, or a combination of the two.

Recently, several language learning apps have been developed disguised as games. “Players” are focused on beating the game while learning new information (words, grammar, etc.) during gameplay.

Self-directed and lifelong learning

With COVID, many online platforms have become the go-to place for learning and access to specialised knowledge from industry experts. This includes platforms like Masterclass and Coursera. These allow not only for career development and personal growth but also for access to information that would not usually be available, such as languages that do not have a presence in certain parts of the world.

Another advantage of many of these platforms is that they and/or the courses are backed by reputable sources such as universities or governmental organisations, lending to their credibility and quality.

Not all Rainbows and Butterflies (Controversies)

There have also been controversies with some of these points. Maria pointed out that the technology component, in particular, has dramatically increased screen time while reducing the in-person social interaction aspect of language learning. This could lead to, e.g. a reduction in social skills.

Additionally, with AI, there is also the danger of compromised data accuracy when AI systems decide to “hallucinate” – or create false information due to a lack of knowledge. If learners learn from these hallucinations (i.e. wrong information), they will be ill-prepared for real-world interactions and need to unlearn false information.

Conclusion: educational research shows we need a balance

The final take-home message from this educational research presentation is that while these trends are very useful in helping people learn a language, they can also be slippery slopes when implemented incorrectly. Maria also stressed that we should use a balanced approach by integrating technology into lessons without losing the focus on traditional education values (e.g. human interaction) and methods. Her recommended approach is a combination of tried-and-true techniques while slowly and deliberately integrating technology into the classroom.

My Reaction to this educational research

As an educator, much of this educational research was not new to me, although it was nice to see it presented clearly and concisely. I also found it insightful as what I have been seeing matches what Maria Elena Metaxas presented.

Some of the concepts were not as helpful for me as they were things I had learned in the past, such as neuroeducation. During the CELTA, based on recent educational research, it was drilled into us that we needed to teach and practice concepts using a variety of modalities (visual, auditory, oral) for various reasons. One was because more practice equals more repetition, which equals a higher likelihood of students remembering and recalling information. The second was that students learn differently; some need to read information, while others need to hear it to understand. Microlearning was also a topic covered in the context of often switching between tasks to keep students engaged.

Since I started teaching in 2017, I have created electronic materials for my students, including homework assignments that would be marked automatically where possible, providing feedback to the students. At this time, AI capabilities were not available, so I had to create materials and go through the logic trees for each question to give them feedback. For example, choosing the correct answer would mean they get a point. For selecting a wrong answer, depending on what they chose, there would be feedback about what they chose and how to think about the question differently. However, I would still have to mark free-response answers myself.

I have not adopted AI directly in the classroom during teaching time. However, since ChatGPT and other AI models debuted, I have used them a bit when planning lessons. I often find that when put on the spot (e.g. creating materials for lessons), I struggle to come up with examples. Before, I would have to struggle to come up with something myself or look for something online that would fit what I wanted to teach. Now, I can give the information to an AI along with goals, parameters, etc. and have it give me a long list of examples, which I can then tweak and use. It has reduced the time needed to create materials considerably for me.

One aspect I had not considered before was using XR during the teaching process. XR is not something that I am very familiar with, especially as you often need special hardware or software to use it. As a freelance teacher, it is not something that I could expect my students to have access to, and it is not something that I would be able to provide to them. However, I can see the value for larger institutions and language schools with the resources and time to invest in using XR and creating materials for it.

What I learnt

As a result of this presentation, I am going to look more into using some of these techniques for learning outside of the classroom. I have found that when students are in class, because time is limited, they want to be able to interact with a person and attempts to introduce technology that takes away from that time is seen as being negative.

However, I think that there is the possibility of using gamification and AI more in “out-of-classroom” materials that will help students between in-class sessions, either as homework assignments if it fits in with the curriculum or purely for their own learning. I have seen that there is a large interest for games to learn languages, especially for languages like Japanese where gaming (e.g. the JRPG genre) and anime culture is a big draw for many learners.