Paul

How is language teaching evolving in the age of AI? How can we design unique lesson materials that offer greater value? How do cultural differences influence a language lesson?

I had a long conversation with Paul, an English trainer and content creator for lesson materials at WEFIT since 2017. An expert in teaching and travel, as he has been teaching since 2004 and has lived in Dubai, China, Mongolia, France, Germany, Turkey and Jordan. He shared his thoughts with me on how the teaching profession is evolving with technology, and what a trainer can bring today that AI cannot. Here is a summary:

Teaching in the age of AI

“The most important point I can highlight about teaching today, in 2025 and in the years to come, is the impact of technology and AI, and the need, as teachers, to be aware of what we truly bring to the table.

What I love about WEFIT is that every time I meet trainers from the team, they are dynamic, interesting, and committed people. I love talking to people like Damon, Fatima, or Chris because they are fascinating.

The days when a teacher’s role was just to pronounce words correctly and explain grammar are over. For that, you can simply go on ChatGPT. There are now AI-based pronunciation tools. We ourselves use voice generation tools in our materials, and learners can access them. What matters is that teachers bring something else to class: their energy, their personality, their dynamism, to create a connection with learners and make the sessions more lively.

In the 21st century, if you don’t think about how to go beyond grammar and vocabulary, then you’re not offering good lessons.

And that’s precisely why I love working at WEFIT, because that’s what we do, and our trainers embrace this approach. They try to bring a bit of originality, with topics that are a bit different, which sometimes shake learners up and push them in directions they hadn’t thought of. We’re far from the simple “explain a grammar point to me.” And that’s why we really aim to challenge learners. To offer them something more than just an English class.”

Quality materials inspired by learners

“I still teach 20 to 25 hours of classes per month and beyond the fact that I love teaching, it’s because I want to have a good idea of what the lessons look like so I can integrate that into the materials I write.

I wanted them to have a bit more personality because today, technology is everywhere. If you want a grammar explanation, you can ask ChatGPT. There are millions of videos on YouTube. If our content just taught basic grammar and vocabulary, I think we would be missing the point.

So, when I teach, I like to know what people talk about, what they think, and that helps me integrate it into the materials, to try to make them a bit more interesting, a bit more relevant. A good example: I have a student I’ve been teaching since 2017 and we both have young children. Right now, they are both four years old. We often talk about the differences between the UK and France in terms of education, schools, what we call “preschool” and what you call “maternelle.” And that allowed me to build two or three interesting lessons about education, with a little something extra, I think, compared to what other organisations offer, because these are concrete topics, taken from real life. For example, in France, you have the school zoning system, the differences in approach, all that... And I think it really helps me create interesting content.”

What is the impact of cultural differences on teaching?

“A very good example is with China: it was obviously the biggest market in the world for teaching, and it was both a real challenge and very interesting to teach there.

One of the aspects I found really, really difficult at first, which really put obstacles in my way during my first year, was their relationship to what we might translate as “face” or “image.” It’s a concept from Confucian philosophy. Basically, they absolutely do not want to lose face. Nobody likes to feel ridiculous or look like they’re wrong, but in China, it’s taken much further than in other countries. I remember a class for a big pharmaceutical company. We were at the very start of the session, in the warm-up moment. I was asking simple questions, as I usually do: I choose 10 or 12 people at random and ask them “How was your weekend? What did you do?”

I ask two people, everything goes well, and I get to Satang: “And you, what did you do?” He starts to answer: “Yes, I went to…” then stops. Clearly, he couldn’t find the word for the place or what he had done. So I gently prompt: “Can you tell me a bit more?” But the more I tried to help him, the more he withdrew. He saw that two or three people before him had answered very well, and he couldn’t. He just lowered his head and went silent.

At that time, I was still quite new in China, so I insisted a little to help him formulate. But it was counterproductive. He withdrew even more, because in his eyes, he was losing face in front of his colleagues. After 3 or 4 attempts, I realised I had to stop. The atmosphere of the class dropped immediately. Total silence. I moved on: “Okay, let’s go to vocabulary.” Normally, I would have continued asking questions, but there, it was obvious I couldn’t question anyone else right after him.

The following week, I came back… and he wasn’t there. I asked: “Where is Satang?” They replied: “He might have a meeting… we don’t know.” He didn’t come back for four sessions. For him, he had lost face, and he didn’t want to come back. It was huge for him. On a 12-week program, he missed 30% of the classes because of that. And that was a real lesson for me.

I understood that you always have to know if a learner is capable of answering a question before asking it. If I ask a French person a question and they don’t know, they’ll say “I don’t know.” And in that case, I give them the vocabulary, we move on. But in China, it doesn’t work like that. There are times when you absolutely must not insist. I quickly understood I had to be extremely careful with what I asked. If someone might make a mistake, it was better to avoid the question.

It was a real balancing act: not asking questions that were too risky, but knowing how to congratulate enthusiastically when things went well. Much more than I would with French or German learners, for example.

So that’s really my biggest learning. And honestly, this situation happened to me 15 or 20 times in the first year. And each time, it killed me.”

Our full video of Paul’s interview will be coming soon, with even more insights and anecdotes. Stay tuned!