“Learning Languages in the Technology Age,” by Alex Bosch, Tanglin Trust School

Technology has changed our lives. It has afforded us possibilities and empowered us to reach further, to do more faster and more efficiently. It has also provided us with vast amounts of pure data and information that have cast a big shadow on many constructs around the value of holding knowledge which for centuries has been held in high regard in many fields, including education.

The technology revolution
The overwhelming and all-consuming nature of the ‘technology revolution’ has left us mortals with some very compelling examples of feasibly substituting daily life processes with technical advances. Why queue at the supermarket on a Sunday when I can shop online? Why use a map when I can check live traffic on Waze? Why learn to spell when the spell check will correct my email? Why buy a newspaper when I can read the news on social media? Why learn a language when I have Google Translate?

Sparking a debate
Beyond the fact that no paper map has been seen in Singapore since 1974, my point in these examples is that it is the nature of technology to be all-encompassing, to strive to find ways to enhance our life experience and we know very well that there is very little that can get in the way of technology. Therefore, how we manage its influence is key to us continuing dictating what we value. These influences have sparked very relevant and pertinent debates around big issues such as information and misinformation, privacy, or freedom. But the one I wish to discuss here is to what extent we are willing to allow this substitution to trickle down into the learning that equips us to deal with those processes in the first place. In other words, our skill set and by definition, into education.

We do not have to queue at the supermarket anymore, but do we want our children to learn patience? We don’t have to use maps, but do we want our children to understand geographical location? Computers can spell for us, but do we want our children to know how to spell? Social media will happily feed us media, but do we want our children to be critical thinkers? We can translate parts of a language but are we willing to give up on the personal connections?

The question of how
Evidently, that last example sparks a professional interest in myself and my colleagues. It opens up a much bigger question that deserves unpicking further and that question is ‘how’. How do children learn rigour? How do they learn to break down the many seemingly insurmountable challenges they face? How do they learn to deal with mistakes? All these questions have different answers in our minds. I am sure as you were reading them, you were looking back and visualising defining moments in your own experience when you tackled those questions.

While it’s relatively simple for us to allocate a time, a place, and a set of resources for a specific class to learn content such as the passé composé in French, photosynthesis in Biology or climate change in Geography, learning ‘how’ is much more complex, elusive, heavily based on personal and shared experience and it needs constant exposure, opportunity, and repetition. It is for this very reason that having a balanced curriculum is key to the most successful schools in the world. The same goes for Tanglin where we are always on a mission to nurture students as well-rounded individuals.

Acquiring important life skills
The focus on learning the ‘how’, acquiring the skills we want our students to have in their lives requires experiences and subjects that enthuse and challenge them. Learning a language is in a prime position as it provides students with a plethora of experiences essential to their growth. In a Languages Faculty lesson, students are presented with opportunities to grow their skill set beyond what is obviously in front of them. They break down text with challenging vocabulary requiring them to use their working memory and extrapolating from it.

They constantly make mistakes and are supported in understanding how they feel about making mistakes, managing those feelings, and learning from the experience. They present to their peers using a medium they find challenging, they learn how to commit content to short and long-term memory, they learn the value of accuracy and rigour, they problem solve and collaborate, they take risks and learn to deal with the consequences.

Going beyond the end product
The pleasure of learning a new language is unparalleled because it is a personal journey that opens completely new worlds, and its benefits beyond the obvious are well researched. However, it is a challenging and slow process. In many ways, it has to be. At a time when technology speeds everything up and makes content easier and easier to consume, it can feel like this process clashes with the times, especially when we are presented with software that promises to fulfil our needs. It offers us the illusion of an end product that ignores the skills that lie underneath. A skillset that is extremely desirable and continues to make language graduates sought after by universities as well as employers around the world.

Everyone who reads this is an educator, all parents and teachers are. As such, we are responsible for equipping our children and students with the tools to be the best they can be. Historically, languages were learned for practical reasons such as for travelling, business, and communicating with others. Hence, like Google Translate, much of the focus was on the end product. However, although our school’s ultimate goal is to support students in mastering the languages they learn, we must never forget that the actual process of learning a language allows the acquisition of abilities that go well beyond the subject and that indeed enable our children and students to be the best they can.