Summary
Although numerous languages have grown in popularity within the decade, English still holds a firm place among the most influential and learned languages. People choose to learn English for various reasons; some want to become part of a global family and travel worldwide, while others mull over acquiring English to work for a large corporation. Whatever the goal, you should approach the act of acquiring responsibly and efficiently.
English isn’t the most complicated language, but it doesn’t mean you can achieve an excellent command of English quickly and easily. Just like the language evolves, its learning methods advance as well. Following patterns that prevailed a dozen years ago would do you no good. What would, though? Here are the top English learning trends in 2022 you might want to consider using when brushing up on your language prowess.
Visual-Packed Lessons
Researchers empirically identified that people better understand visually described subjects. Looking at images, photos, animations, and videos allows people to draw the necessary parallels to comprehend and learn the topic. Visuals also help deter cramming, a strategy various students are involved in these days.
Whether you are a learner or a teacher, here is a tip: use an animation maker or any tool you are familiar with to craft visuals to explain the subject. A graphic card explaining a tense and providing a visual example will replace pages of written text and lead to a much better understanding of how and when to use the tense.
Immersive Learning
We live in a fast-paced environment observing rapid technology development that aims to automate our lives and make them more simplified. And while we quickly adapt to such changes in our daily life, harnessing technologies often gets overlooked when it comes to other activities, including learning the language. Immersive learning is the trend that’s slowly getting into the limelight and will boom soon.
Its primary purpose is to layer learning onto our day-to-day life, thus making people better remember what they know and how to use this knowledge. Things like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are trailblazers in the immersive acquisition field. These state-of-the-art technologies allow students to dive deep into a subject learning it through real-life examples they can experience, compared to monotonous sentences in a book.
Personalized, Self-Directed & Self-Paced Learning
Attending courses is a common way to learn English. However, they are often ineffective and don’t focus on students’ strengths and weaknesses regarding the language. Gravitating toward personalized, self-directed, and self-paced learning isn’t a recent trend; it’s been quite viral for some years now, but the problem is that many still opt for courses entailing dozens of students in a group.
Tailoring the learning process to your needs will allow you to enhance your command of English and build a practical program so that you don’t waste time working on aspects you either don’t need to know at the moment or know well to walk around it for long.
Problem-Based, Project-Based & Collaborative Learning
Gone is the epoch when people used to learn everything related to English to maintain communication and use it daily. Of course, many still do it, but the thing is that language has become a commodity. Now, it’s much more vital to build your learning upon a particular area to become qualified and competent.
Problem-based learning will enable you to perfect your knowledge of a subject and tackle incoming challenges more effectively. If, for example, you are interested in the business world, learning business English would be your go-to.
Project-based learning will fuel your enthusiasm and help you understand the subject and be able to communicate it faster and more fluently. Collaborative learning, in turn, will allow you to interact with colleagues and draw advantages from one another’s resources and skills.
How to Determine the Best Trend for my Learning Path?
Following every trend and hoping it will help you bolster your English skills is the wrong approach you must omit. Trends are just strategies more people use in a given time. Although they are novel and may be more efficient than their counterparts, it doesn’t instantly mean they apply to your learning path.
Practice Trial and Error
The best way to find a suitable learning strategy is to take one at a time and test it. Take notes about its pros and cons. It will help you evaluate it once you finish using a specific method and determine whether you should adopt it after all.
Don’t be Afraid to Experiment & Modify Learning Strategies
No trend means everyone must strictly follow it. You are highly encouraged to customize any method if you think it will be better after your modification. Experimenting will allow you to come up with personalized acquisition that may be much better than any trend.
Don’t Bite more than You can Chew
Whatever learning approach you choose, try not to go overboard with following it. Make sure your learning process is broken down into multiple sessions to help you understand the content and maintain high productivity and attention.
Many English language learning trends are circulating this year, and while some will enter 2023, others will likely disappear soon. That’s why it’s essential to use them wisely and make sure they work for you. Finally, remember to regularly reassess strategies and modify or even do away with them if they don’t bring the expected outcomes.
I’m Sehar, and have been working as a Content Writer for The Different Languages. Moreover, I’m just an amateur writer who didn’t quit and believes that everything in life is writable about if you’ve the outgoing guts to do it!