The SmartClass Blog

Leveraging SmartClass to shift L2 acquisition

Written by Candy O. Vitale | November 15, 2022 3:12:31 PM Z

Language teachers have all nostalgically reflected on their journeys in language learning.  Whether they are a native speaker or not, every second language teacher was once a language learner.  Therefore, language teachers tend to be more empathetic towards their students as they desperately attempt to guide their students to love the language and culture that have inspired them to be language educators themselves.  Now, imagine that during your language learning experience your teacher had in their tool kit the SmartClass L2 platform that was made just for your particular learning style needs. How would your journey have been transformed if each lesson was tailored to your specific learning needs? Here’s how …

The SmartClass Teaching Platform and activities (Curricula) foster the first necessary metalinguistic state: comfortability.  

Students feel more comfortable with language production as they are not always on stage for everyone to listen to each time they attempt L2 fluency and practice pronunciation. With the built-in pronunciation activities, students are able to build confidence with the L2 speaking skills thanks to our artificial intelligence activities. Students see results and the fruits of their learning immediately, satisfying the need for immediate affirmation of their hard work in the foreign language. Imagine, if these opportunities were provided to you during your second language learning journey, how transformative would it have been for your own growth in the L2? 

 

Leveraging Robotel’s SmartClass software and curricula permits teachers to individualize instruction, to meet the student at their Level +1 (n+1).

Teachers have real-time data at their fingertips across all four language domains (receptive and productive) which informs their activity assignments to best foster their students' areas in need of growth. The magic is that teachers are able to target their assignments to perpetuate an immersive pedagogical approach that fosters student growth in areas that are needed. In turn, students can revisit specific L2 skills in need of strengthening. Combining Robotel’s SmartClass platform and curricula permits teachers to include the necessary modifications to any premade activities that can be infused into all materials to provide scaffolds or enrichment for students at their level + 1 (n+1).  Imagine, if these pedagogical personalizations were provided to you during your second language learning journey, how transformative would it have been for your own growth in the L2? 

 

One of the most critical teacher responsibilities is providing students with relevant, timely, and impactful feedback. In any given classroom, the student-to-teacher ratio is one to 30+. Teachers are in fact magicians, providing as much authentic feedback as possible in one lesson to reach each of the 30+ students in front of them, enough feedback that makes the student feel recognized and important.  This is a near-impossible task, but one an educator juggles on a daily basis.  However, what if a platform and content could transform the quality, frequency, and student-centered feedback that is provided by teachers to their students? The SmartClass language teaching platform creates these crucial teacher-to-student interactions which ultimately foster the intrinsic motivation educators long to awaken in all of their students. The auto-graded features of the platform allow teachers to provide students with immediate feedback. Furthermore, teachers can easily re-calibrate the current instructional delivery to enrich or revisit topics of foggy areas in real-time, so that students are not lost in translation on any specific instructional objective or language learning goal. SmartClass allows teachers to grasp in real-time the point of comprehension breakdown, therefore driving instructional delivery to meet the students at the critical points of conceptual linguistic acquisition. Imagine, if these pedagogical personalizations were provided to you during your second language learning journey, how transformative would it have been for your own growth in the L2? 

 

Student reflection is a beautiful concept in any learning environment. How do teachers convince students to reflect on their own progress and therefore foster a motivation in language learning that is intrinsically rooted? By way of Robotel’s SmartClass language learning and instructional platform. Teachers can confidently guide students to monitor their own L2 progress through the usage report and performance reporting features. The innovative and real-time features of the platform hold students accountable as they see their strengths and areas of growth on the spot. Students will begin to advocate for themselves by requesting activities that foster areas of linguistic growth for each individual student. The notion of continually permitting and equipping students with their own progress in their performance motivates students to intrinsically seek out more opportunities to acquire the L2 skills needed on their journey to bilingualism. Imagine, if these intrinsically motivating aspects were provided to you during your second language learning journey, how transformative would it have been for your own growth in the L2? 

Finally, language teachers have a treasure trove of realia and anecdotes from their own experiences and travels. The teaching platform allows teachers to complement the premade activities with their own personalized and catered stories, thus digitized into the software. The SmartClass platform allows teachers to continue creating meaningful and authentic activities where they can easily store and organize their digitized materials. Realia, authentic recordings, videos, and images can be uploaded into our L2 platform. Once there, teachers can work on authoring L2 targeted learning activities by way of 20 premade and easy-to-use activity templates to attach to their uploaded files. Imagine, if these opportunities were provided to you during your second language learning journey, how transformative would it have been for your own growth in the L2?

Well, your imagination can be a reality with Robotel’s SmartClass language learning and instructional platform.