My First Ever Series – Teaching Bilingual Learners

I wish someone had drilled this into me at a much younger age. Looking back, I see so many missed opportunities and unnecessary anxiety, all stemming from a simple lack of belief in “I can.”

The idea that I shouldn’t apply for a job I couldn’t already do perfectly, or that if I knew something, everyone else must know it too, so it wasn’t worth sharing—these thoughts seem absurd in hindsight, but they felt perfectly logical at the time.

Putting Theory into Practice

If you read my last blog, you’ll recall that my New Year’s resolutions were around confidence and continuous learning. With this in mind, I’m combining both into action! I’ve started a series of short talks on bilingualism, covering a blend of theory, practical ideas, and my own experiences living in different linguistic contexts and working with bilingual and multilingual students.

This project really emerged from my last blog post about language. As I prepared it, my dormant geekdom reawakened, and I found myself diving deep into research about language and learning. (I know, I really should get a life!)

Here’s the first episode. I’ll admit it was very scary to produce—I’m someone who can crash a laptop at 500 paces, so dealing with recording, editing, and adding sound was quite the learning curve! I hope you find the course enjoyable and useful. Please let me know if there’s anything you’d like more information on or topics you’d like me to add. 

AI in Education: A Tool, Not a Replacement

I’ll be writing a blog soon about using AI in education. I used AI to help with the bilingualism course, but I also did the reading and fact-checking myself. That’s the crucial point we need to remind our students (and sometimes ourselves): we are the ones with the knowledge. AI might help us present that knowledge, but it certainly doesn’t replace us.

One thing I want to emphasise: while we use AI in our content creation, it will never replace human expertise when you ask questions through our question form. These queries are passed to practicing teachers who provide honest insights based on real experience. AI can only offer general information—it can’t make nuanced judgments about specific situations or evaluate the validity of what it creates.

There will always be a place for humans.

How do you use AI? Or do you avoid it altogether? I’d love to hear your thoughts—it will help us tailor our content to better serve you. Contact me here.