Technological innovations, early introduction, and gamification make learning a second language easier, with a more personalized communicative approach than ever. Long gone are the traditional English classes, which focused primarily and tediously on acquiring grammar and memorizing vocabulary, irregular verbs, and phrasal verbs.
In a society as fast-paced, interconnected, and digitized as the current one, communication skills and their application in real situations have taken on the leading role. There is no lack of desire, but there is time, and technological advances in fields such as artificial intelligence, mobile applications, and podcasts have made learning almost à la carte possible, connecting where, when, and how it suits us best.
Teaching languages must adapt to new contexts, taking advantage of emerging technologies that facilitate language learning, which tends to take place more in collaborative classrooms and in virtual or hybrid environments (face-to-face and online). The main trend is also the one that has existed for the longest time: to mix human skills (those of the teacher) with technology. Today it is about artificial intelligence and combining teaching in apps with face-to-face teaching. A practice that is mixed with the trend to start learning foreign languages at increasingly younger ages and to increase the use of the language as a vehicular language in other subjects, both at school and at universities.
With the development of bilingual programs in different contexts, being proficient in a second or third language has acquired greater relevance because it allows the acquisition of the language in a way that is more similar to the mother tongue as to its multicultural insight.
Technology, customization, communication skills. These are the trends with the greatest force today. But, above all, there must be a real commitment on the part of the student, and the teacher has, more than ever, the duty to motivate their students to continue learning. As we live in such a busy society, we do not pay as much attention as before, and we have to look for that point to motivate, surprise and maintain interest.
With the increasing trend of the flipped classroom, students study or watch content at home (for example, a video that explains certain grammatical content), and then put it into practice in the classroom, with the assistance of the teacher.
