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Innovative Methods for Learning Languages

I believe you’ve been in the same, or a similar, situation: a client asked me what the future is likely to bring in my field. “Well”, I wanted to say, “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out every minute of every day”. I decided to give her, as an example, information about several projects that might indicate what language education will be like in five or ten years.

I believe you’ve been in the same, or a similar, situation: a client asked me what the future is likely to bring in my field. “Well”, I wanted to say, “That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out every minute of every day”. I decided to give her, as an example, information about several projects that might indicate what language education will be like in five or ten years.

However, before I could even start talking, she said: “Everyone will study languages online, right? It’s been so popular.”

It has, but mostly with directors and HR. People in offices, sitting at their desktops, lack the motivation to use the same tool for their language studies as they do for work.

Blended learning seems to be the answer. If there is a real person behind the course, people are more motivated to undertake the virtual part. “So any e-learning focused on language”, I told her, “should be started by a face-to-face meeting. To keep them going, the students should meet their teacher once a month and practice what they have learnt online.”

“Ok,” Eva replied, “but some of our people are in the field most of the time, and cannot fix their schedules.” Fortunately, we have Skype, which nowadays enables screen sharing. Teachers can also use Google Docs to store their materials and share them with the students. To personalize the course, it pays off to start with a one week intensive, face-to-face, and then to continue with individual Skype lessons at flexible times. A client holds an intensive course at least once a year, and tries to complete an intensive programme every time their target people have several days without a project.

“Hmm, interesting.” I heard her saying. “On another note, my colleagues keep playing with their smart phones and tablets at our meetings. You’ve thought of that?” Smart phones provide an endless supply of authentic materials, so the trainer’s key task is to recommend the right sources and study applications both for iOS and Android. If you have a dedicated meeting room/classroom available, you can even use a flat screen and an Apple TV, and mirror the screen of everybody’s smart phone or iPad."

“Alright,” Eva said, “so what’s trendy nowadays?” Naturally, all businesses have become cost-conscious. However, the clever ones have realized it is cost-effectiveness that will win the day, not cost-cutting. So there are more Language for Specific Purposes training courses. These are very focused, either on a field of expertise (e.g. The Language of Contracts), or a specific part of a job (e.g. Negotiating in English). The narrowed focus means clearer goals and easier measurement of the outcomes. Such training courses are either done on weekly basis (two hour sessions for 3 to 6 months) or organized in several shorter sessions (one-day, 2-3 days, or half-day sessions once a month for several months, etc.) The ultimate advantage lies in the high motivation levels of the participants and the clear expectations of all parties involved.

“Sounds reasonable,” Eva commented, “but how will I find out if they have mastered what I needed them to? Are pen and paper tests still popular?” They are, but innovative approaches to testing can be found as well. Training institutions can be asked to develop a set of tests for language courses which are available directly through a client’s LMS. And then people like Eva can see all of the results in one place.

Eva seemed to be satisfied and ordered some Skype sessions for her technical staff. You can find more information here www.spevacek.info/innovative-learning

Mgr. Martin Hejhal
Academic Director
SPĚVÁČEK vzdělávací centrum s.r.o.
www.spevacek.info