Why Blended Learning in EFL will win the war with A.I.

Traditional teaching or online learning? In an A.I.-led world, both together is surely the answer

Attend any education conference or pick up a trade magazine and you’ll be bombarded with stories of A.I. technology and its imminent takeover of the world of education. The veterans among us have heard it all before, of course – twenty-odd years ago, when the internet arrived and doom merchants sounded a death knell for ‘traditional teaching’ everywhere.

Most likely, the good old-fashioned flesh and blood teacher will always be needed, one way or another. If only to switch the projector on, get the students to put their phones away, and lock up when they leave at the end.

Meantime, the role of technology in the learning process has now become a mainstay. There are an estimated 1.5 billion learners studying English worldwide. A 2021 World Economic Forum article reported that Coursera alone registered over 20 million new online learners that year (up from 92 to 189 million in total). The financial benefits of studying online were already well established before COVID came along and showed us how online learning could also work logistically.

Where the battle will be won or lost, however, is where it matters most – the learning experience. Even the most reluctant of attendees will grudgingly confess that the motivation to study is stronger when coming from a teacher than a computer (or mobile phone). Human interaction – to set a task, answer questions, or check learning – is hard to replicate in computerised form. Sympathy, understanding, tolerance, and belief – the emotional support system that a good teacher should always offer – could A.I. ever offer that?

Blended learning is defined as ‘combin[ing] face-to-face and online activities in a seamless and complementary flow of learning’ (advance-he.ac.uk). Undoubtedly the key lies in making that collaboration a ‘seamless’ and ‘complementary’ one.

Incorporating technology into the learning experience should go so much further than simply teaching off an interactive board. Flipped classrooms (setting online work to be done before the lesson) offer an increasingly popular strategy. Continuing this by having every student see the classroom-based lessons as just one module of a bigger learning experience is the way to take that further.

The flesh and blood teacher is a resource to be used in the same way that a laptop or phone is used – as a facilitator of learning. Blended learning reinforces this. And whilst that might seem like letting the computers take over, non-participation would be even worse. That would be letting them win.

• Adam’s Free English offers an extensive resource bank to enable teachers to find online lessons and activities for use in blended learning, flipped classrooms and self-study. These resources are (mostly) free to use.

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