Roy Cross's Blog

Only one post this week, a bit longer than usual, as I got in a right tiz-woz over some work I had to do for NILE with French school teachers of English yesterday and today. On reflection, the Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath stuff was probably a mistake!

1. A recent piece from The Conversation, Africa’s linguistic diversity goes largely unnoticed in research on multilingualism by Robyn Berghoff & Emanuel Bylund  from Stellenbosch University https://theconversation.com/africas-linguistic-diversity-goes-largely-unnoticed-in-research-on-multilingualism-208204

Language is a uniquely human skill. That’s why studying how people learn and use language is crucial to understanding what it means to be human. Given that most people in the world – an estimated 60% – are multilingual, meaning that they know and use more than one language, a researcher who aims to understand language must also grasp how individuals acquire and use multiple languages. The ubiquity of multilingualism also has practical consequences. For example, in the early schooling years, children learn more effectively when they are taught in their mother tongue rather than a second or third language. Research also shows that people make different decisions depending on whether they are thinking in their first or second language. The problem is that much of the published research about multilingualism is not conducted in the world’s most multilingual societies. For example, the African continent is home to some of the most multilingual countries in the world. Cameroon has a population of around 27 million people; over 250 different languages are spoken as first languages, often alongside English and French or both.

2. Russell Stannard’s videos on technology and language learning are always worth watching. Here’s a recent one with a characteristically upbeat title, Unbelievably Useful Interactive Language Worksheet Generator for Teachers & Students https://youtu.be/X0g78eaKPW0 Here’s his YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKjOFIFE0q71IJ4GFx4brng

3. A useful open access article in the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, Artificial intelligence in higher education: the state of the field by Helen Crompton & Diane Burke https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/S41239-023-00392-8 PDF below, just in case.

Undergraduate students were the most studied students at 72%. Similar to the findings of other studies, language learning was the most common subject domain. This included writing, reading, and vocabulary acquisition. In examination of who the AIEd (AI in Education) was intended for, 72% of the studies focused on students, 17% instructors, and 11% managers. In answering the overarching question of how AIEd was used in HE, grounded coding was used. Five usage codes emerged from the data: (1) Assessment/Evaluation, (2) Predicting, (3) AI Assistant, (4) Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS), and (5) Managing Student Learning.

4. That Large language models fall short in classifying learners’ open-ended responses may not be this week’s most surprising finding, but Atsushi Mizumoto & Mark Feng Teng write it up well in Research Methods in Applied Linguistics https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S277276612500031X?ref=pdf_download&fr=RR-2&rr=96001cc25e462547 PDF below.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), based on large language models (LLMs), excels in various language comprehension tasks and is increasingly utilized in applied linguistics research. This study examines the accuracy and methodological implications of using LLMs to classify open-ended responses from learners. We surveyed 143 Japanese university students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) about their essay-writing process.

5. A hopeless piece (in one sense) by Aaron MacLean for Engelsberg Ideas, A warning to the young: just say no to AI https://engelsbergideas.com/essays/a-warning-to-the-young-just-say-no-to-ai/

I have a warning for you. There is a conspiracy afoot in the land, targeting all of us. The computers in our pockets and the screens all around us have for years paired incredible access to all the world’s information with increasingly ruthless attacks on our capacity for focus, or for what some call ‘deep work’. That’s old news. We all fight this battle every day and it’s important to develop techniques to win it.

6. The Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC) have just produced this impact study for the British Council, Empowering girls through education: a long-term impact evaluation of the English and Digital for Girls’ Education (EDGE) project https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/publications/case-studies-insights-and-research/empowering-girls-through-education PDF below.

In South Asia, 81 per cent of out-of-school girls are unlikely to ever start school, compared to 42 per cent of boys. The region also faces a significant gender digital divide, with women 26 per cent less likely to own a mobile phone than men. To address these disparities, the British Council launched the English and Digital for Girls’ Education (EDGE) programme in 2016. Aimed at out-of-school girls aged 13–19 from marginalised communities, EDGE enhances English, digital skills, social awareness, and self-confidence through a peer-led model. Trained Peer Group Leaders (PGLs) facilitate club sessions. By February 2024, EDGE had reached over 20,000 girls and trained nearly 2,000 PGLs across eight countries, including India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.

That 81% figure fair takes one’s breath away …

[file x 1]

7. And, finally, some common sense from Rod Bristow, Beyond Hype and Fluff: Lessons for AI from 25 Years of EdTech https://www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/10/beyond-hype-and-fluff-lessons-for-ai-from-25-years-of-edtech/

Steady growth in investment over the last decade culminated in a huge peak during Covid. Hype and ‘fluff’ overtook rational thinking, and several superficially attractive businesses spiked and then plummeted in value. In education, details and evidence of impact (or efficacy) matter. Without them, lasting scale is much harder to achieve. The pendulum has now swung the other way, with investors harder to convince. Investors and entrepreneurs need to ask the question, ‘Does it work?’ before considering how it scales. If they do, they will see plenty of applications that both work and scale, and better-educated investors will be good for the sector. One of the biggest barriers to scale is the complexity of implementation with teachers, without whom there is little impact. Without getting into the debate about teacher autonomy, most teachers like to do their own thing. And products which bypass teachers, marketed directly to consumers, often struggle to show as much impact and financial return.Emily#1987