Many things are still out in the air as we approach the year 2022. It’s true that the world has become used to living in a pandemic, but it’s also true that our infrastructure has come under a lot of increased stress as new strains spread and overwhelm us. Some schools may have resumed in-person instruction, while others may have sent children home on a regular basis.
However, for many people, foreign travel is still out of the question. What will happen in 2022 with regard to language acquisition, given all of this and other technical variables that have been in place since 2020, is yet to be seen. However, there are a few noteworthy trends.
Machine translation and speech recognition have advanced significantly during the past decade.. There will be no discussion of how robots will replace language instructors in this piece. In any case, it’s all about how technology is being incorporated into the traditional classroom format in ever more creative ways.
Future Language Learning Trends in 2022
Does Translation Become a Helpful Companion?
Despite the fact that translation technology is constantly improving, it is still far from being a viable substitute for genuine language study. Perhaps it’s evolved to the point where it might be a valuable tool for language learners, if handled correctly.
Auto-translation may be used effectively in your studies if you simply search for individual words, not complete phrases. A good dictionary-by-search-engine is a good dictionary, but Google Translate isn’t great at accurately translating difficult texts. You’ll still need to learn proper syntax for it.
By first attempting to understand the material on your own and only then invoking Google Translate to provide an automatic translation of the page, you may utilise it as a study companion.
However, there is a theoretical “proper connection to machine translation” and a real classroom usage of it. Cheating and plagiarism will be rampant among college students. Teachers may have a tougher time seeing this as technology advances.
There appears to be a growing acceptance among educators that machine translation is here to stay, and that we should utilise it to aid students, rather than make it simple for them to avoid genuine learning by making it easy for them to use translation services.
Learning from the comfort of your own home is here to stay!
No, that doesn’t mean that students aren’t going back to classrooms. It implies that language learners of all ages have been accustomed to the increased flexibility and convenience provided by the growing online experience over the last few of years. A growing number of students, including those who remain in traditional classrooms, are eager to have more control over their educational experience.
A forecast by Meticulous Research predicts an increase of 18.7 percent in the online language learning industry from 2020 to 2027. The outbreak is unquestionably a significant contributor to this. COVID-related school cancellations have affected 1.2 billion students in 186 countries, according to the World Economic Forum.
At least some of this innovation has been fueled by customer demand, which may continue when the emergency element fades.
More and more people are choosing to take live online language lessons because of how convenient it is for their busy schedules. In addition to classroom or app-based learning, many people are taking advantage of this alternative.
Plus, it’s worth noting that, at least for the time being, a lot of overseas travel is scheduled at the last minute since it’s difficult to know how safe it will be to go. There is a growing need for flexible, convenient sessions for those who are learning languages to travel.
Bilingual education may become even more bi-lingual in the future
When it comes to learning a new language, the golden rule has always been to avoid speaking in your home tongue once you enter the classroom. To put it another way, when you can’t use the knowledge you already have, your brain is forced to start using the language you’re trying to acquire. This leads to a faster rate of progress toward fluency.
The effort to teach two languages at the same time, however, appears to be gaining momentum. Using more than one language simultaneously is known as translanguaging, and it’s an area of study that’s gaining traction in schools around the country. Translanguaging is an argument against the notion that the brain processes languages independently.
More in accordance with the idea that for a bilingual or multilingual human, language is fluid and informs each other rather than being segregated in the brain.
Despite the fact that this concept is still in its infancy, some language educators are already imagining how it may be used in the classroom. Among their suggestions in an essay for Language Magazine, three of them advocated having students collaborate to tell stories in many languages, as well as having them write bilingual works in which the focus shifts from one language to another at certain points in the narrative.
In immersion schools, where students learn two languages and often take up a third language by osmosis, this is already a common technique.
There Is An Ecosystem Of Learning
More and more, learning a language is becoming a multifaceted endeavor including various touchpoints and immersion exercises, rather than something done only in a classroom, a book, or an app.
Live online courses, podcasts, and YouTube videos are just some of the other resources Babbel has added in addition to the app-based lessons it is most known for. If you want to learn a foreign language, you should augment your official education with a wide variety of foreign-language media and immersion experiences. It is more probable that a well-rounded education will be remembered.
Most of this is also taking place in more traditional settings. A new trend among language teachers is to employ a blended approach, in which students attend class to receive personalized one-on-one attention from a teacher, but also use language learning applications on their own time to practice and improve on their own accord.
In the end, there has never been a better moment to be a language student seeking TV episodes or films to watch in your studying language. Streaming services like Netflix and Hulu are increasingly offering content in languages other than English. You may feel productive without having to put in a tonne of work with this.
