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What Makes Feedback Meaningful and How Can AI Enhance Teacher-Led Delivery

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The latest Language Teaching Takeoff Webinar welcomed first-time guest host Pilar Capaul. As a language teacher and ELT content creator, she shared examples from her own lessons to demonstrate how teachers can use the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition to monitor understanding and create engaging activities.

What Makes Feedback Meaningful and How Can AI Enhance Teacher-Led Delivery

London, April 2026 – In ‘Provide Meaningful, Timely Feedback at Scale with the Power of AI’, Joanna Szoke examined the role feedback plays in learner progress, focusing not just on providing it, but on what makes it truly impactful. She also introduced and demonstrated the new TeacherMatic ‘Advanced Feedback’ generator, showing how it can empower teachers to deliver feedback at scale, save time and use AI in a safe, ethical and teacher-led way.

Moderated by Giada Brisotto, Senior Marketing and Sales Operations Manager at Avallain, the session focused on how feedback should do more than comment on performance. It should motivate, inspire and give learners clear opportunities to improve and progress.

Feed Forward, Not Just Feedback

One of Joanna Szoke’s favourite topics, and a key area of expertise, is feedback and assessment in language teaching. She opened the session by asking an important question: what makes feedback useful?

Joanna wanted to reiterate that effective feedback should do more than just review performance; it should help students move forward. Feedback should support progress and build confidence. 

She also highlighted the importance of timing and specificity. Feedback is most valuable when learners can still act on it and when it includes clear explanations, relevant examples and practical actions for improvement.

Finally, Joanna suggested that feedback can also come from self-reflection and peer review. This shift to student-centred learning allows for greater ownership and even reduces teacher workload. 

Reducing Workload Without Reducing Quality

Feedback is not only important, but also one of the most time-consuming responsibilities. Alongside approaches such as self-assessment and peer review, Joanna wanted to demonstrate how TeacherMatic can enable teachers to reduce workload while still delivering impactful, effective feedback.

She introduced the new ‘Advanced Feedback’ generator. Designed to support teachers while keeping professional judgement central, it streamlines feedback workflows without compromising quality. Key features include bulk uploads, Cambridge English alignment, customisable criteria, support for handwritten submissions and annotated feedback for text-based work.

With a simple setup process, teachers can create an assignment, upload the brief or paste instructions, then choose criteria-based feedback, annotated feedback or both.

For criteria-based feedback, teachers can select their own criteria or Cambridge English criteria, with options such as Accuracy and Grammar, Vocabulary and Word Choice, Coherence and Cohesion and Fluency and Communication. Teachers can also select CEFR levels before saving the assignment and inviting submissions.

Feedback at Scale, Teachers in Control

Once assignments are created, teachers can upload one submission or bulk-upload multiple pieces of student work, making it far easier to manage feedback at scale.

Joanna highlighted that efficiency should never come at the expense of responsibility. When using AI to assess or evaluate student work, teachers should be transparent with learners and seek consent before uploading submissions.

She also emphasised that the generator is there to support the feedback process, not replace it, explaining that it should ‘help me with feedback, not produce the entire feedback’, and reinforcing the importance of keeping teachers as active participants throughout the process. Teachers should review outputs, refine responses and make the final professional judgement before anything is shared with students.

Practical Outputs for Teachers and Learners

Joanna then explored the structure of the feedback provided. It is practical, clear and ready to refine.

A dedicated For Teacher view provides a more detailed breakdown, including performance against selected criteria, recognised strengths, areas for improvement and a corresponding CEFR level. Teachers also receive a written summary of the submission, alongside suggested next steps to guide future progress.

The For Student view uses more targeted language with phrasing such as ‘You can form basic sentences, but check your verb tenses.’ This creates feedback that is more personal and easier for students to act on.

Taking Feedback Further

While useful and impactful feedback has been generated, Joanna recognises that it may still need a follow-up activity to reinforce learning, such as a gap-fill activity. The refine option allows teachers to do this. They can adapt the tone, ask to increase motivation or generate additional tasks tailored to specific learner needs.

For example, teachers can request extra practice activities that target recurring mistakes. This can turn feedback into continued learning rather than a final comment.

She also demonstrated the highly practical option of uploading handwritten PDF submissions, recognising that handwritten work remains common in many teaching contexts and continues to offer value for learners.

Joanna then showcased the power of annotated feedback for text-based submissions, where comments are automatically added directly to the student’s work. These annotations can be edited, removed or expanded with the teacher’s own feedback, creating a fast and flexible way to personalise responses.

When sharing feedback with learners, teachers can export it as a PDF or copy it into a Word document for further editing. As Joanna noted, this allows teachers to retain the human element while benefiting from a more efficient workflow.

Putting Teachers and Feedback at the Centre of the Learning Journey

As Joanna highlighted throughout the session, TeacherMatic is far more than a generic AI tool; it is designed specifically for language teaching workflows. The Language Teaching Edition has been built specifically for language educators, with over 50 purpose-built generators designed to make language teaching faster and more effective.

The new ‘Advanced Feedback’ generator is a clear example of this. It reduces the workload of delivering detailed feedback by empowering teachers to provide timely, meaningful feedback at scale.

Rather than replacing professional judgement, the generator strengthens it. Teachers set the criteria, review outputs, refine responses and decide what is ultimately shared with learners. The result is a more efficient workflow that saves time, supports consistency and places teachers and feedback where they belong, at the centre of the learning journey.

Explore the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition

From planning CEFR-aligned lessons and creating high-quality activities to implementing structured feedback workflows and more, the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition is built on recognised language teaching methodologies and developed with input from the International House World Organisation, NILE, Eaquals and English UK.

Designed as a safe and ethical AI toolkit for language teachers, it delivers reliability, strong pedagogical alignment and outputs created for use inside and outside the classroom.

Discover more here

Next in the Webinar Series

Make Informed CEFR Alignment Decisions In the Age of AI

🗓 Thursday, 14th May
🕛 12:00 – 12:30 BST (13:00 – 13:30 CEST)

Join award-winning educator Nik Peachey as he introduces the new ‘CEFR Alignment for Teachers: In the Age of AI’ course.

See how to apply CEFR principles in a structured, practical way using TeacherMatic. Learn how to make informed decisions, maintain pedagogical integrity and adapt outputs to different learner contexts while retaining full professional control.

Click here to register and secure a spot

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

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Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

New CEFR Alignment Course Developed in Collaboration with NILE

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Avallain has launched ‘CEFR Alignment for Teachers: In the Age of AI’, a new online course for language teachers, developed in collaboration with CEFR specialists Dr Elaine Boyd and Thom Kiddle at Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE). Available on Avallain Magnet, the course officially launches at IATEFL 2026 and supports teachers in applying CEFR principles to AI-generated and classroom materials with confidence.

New CEFR Alignment Course Developed in Collaboration with NILE

St. Gallen, April 2026 – ‘CEFR Alignment for Teachers: In the Age of AI’, a free, interactive course, is now available on Avallain Magnet, our peerless, AI-integrated learning management system. It will be officially launched at the IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition 2026 (21st–24th April). 

Developed through the shared efforts of the Avallain team and CEFR specialists Dr Elaine Boyd and Thom Kiddle at NILE, it helps language teachers align, evaluate and adapt generated texts, while strengthening their ability to make pedagogically sound decisions for learners at different CEFR levels.

A Framework That Continues to Shape Language Education

In 2001, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) marked a defining moment in language education. It established a standard framework for describing language proficiency and achievement. Over the past 25 years, we can see its significant impact across course design, level benchmarking, assessment frameworks and published learning materials. 

While the CEFR has been widely used, alignment has not always been done consistently or transparently. In some instances, claims of CEFR alignment are not clearly substantiated or supported by defined principles or practices. This raises important questions about validity and professional accountability, which this course aims to address by deepening understanding and improving alignment decisions.

CEFR Alignment in the Age of AI

The rapid growth and adoption of AI in language education were another key driver behind the creation of ‘CEFR Alignment for Teachers: In the Age of AI’. Teachers can now generate context-specific, personalised learning materials more quickly than ever. This creates new opportunities to adapt content to learners’ needs with greater speed and flexibility. 

However, as seen in past misuse of the CEFR, the availability of these tools does not in itself ensure that materials are appropriate for a given level. The risk of misalignment remains, particularly where outputs are not evaluated against the descriptors, scales and principles that underpin the framework.

The course addresses this challenge and reinforces the need for informed teacher judgment by strengthening teachers’ knowledge and skills in applying the CEFR. Its aim is to build confident teachers who can make sound decisions and ensure that alignment claims are both pedagogically sound and professionally defensible.

Flexible Learning, Grounded in Practice

During the course, language teachers will gain a broad understanding of the CEFR’s scope, familiarise themselves with specific levels and scales and ultimately deepen their knowledge of its structure.

Delivered on Avallain Magnet, this course is flexible, interactive and self-paced. It will strengthen teachers’ confidence in deciding how to use texts for learners at different CEFR levels and enhance their understanding of how to adapt AI-generated texts and tasks for specific scales. 

As CEFR alignment expert Dr Elaine Boyd explains, ‘This course is designed to really help teachers align the CEFR scales and descriptors with the specific needs of their classes. And the great thing is, teachers can dip in and out of it when they have time and build their skills at their own pace.’

From Understanding to Informed Application

The course provides an overview of the CEFR, introducing its descriptors, their defining features and how one level differs from another.

Through interactive modules, participants will engage with illustrative descriptors, analyse authentic written and listening texts and practise discriminating between descriptors at different levels in the same scale, including the ‘plus levels’. 

David Moxon, Learning Technology Specialist and Content Developer at Avallain, who helped develop and publish the course on Avallain Magnet, explains, ‘While it is important for participants to gain a broad understanding of the CEFR framework, it is equally critical that they engage with it. Interactive exercises, such as benchmarking tasks, will help translate theory into practice. The learning environment also offers the opportunity for teachers to assess their progress throughout the course and evaluate their confidence in a final self-assessment.’

As AI becomes part of everyday language teaching, this course supports teachers in working more effectively with AI-generated content and is designed to complement the use of the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition, a trusted AI toolkit that empowers language educators ethically and safely.

Our collective efforts were not to deny the role of AI, but rather to reinforce the importance of professional judgement and ensure that alignment decisions are informed by context, pedagogy and a clear understanding of the framework. 

Reflecting on the course design, Thom Kiddle, NILE Director and CEFR specialist, notes, ‘We really enjoyed designing the course and thinking creatively about how to draw teachers’ focus to the horizontal dimension of the CEFR across all the different modes of communication, and to really engage with the way the individual descriptors are worded and what that means for learner language ability.’

Designed to Support Professional Growth

This course is intended for language teachers who are already familiar with the fundamentals of the CEFR and are looking to deepen their understanding and strengthen their practical application of it. It is also relevant for academic managers, senior teachers, syllabus designers and edtech coordinators involved in curriculum development and learning design.

While no prior knowledge of AI is required, the course recognises the growing role of AI content in language education and supports teachers working with both AI-generated and traditionally developed materials.

Official Launch at IATEFL 2026

From the 21st to the 24th of April, the Avallain team will attend the IATEFL International Conference and Exhibition 2026 in Brighton (UK). This event will bring together English language teaching professionals and enthusiasts from around the world, providing an excellent opportunity for the official launch of ‘CEFR Alignment for Teachers: In the Age of AI’.

The course reflects a joint commitment to an honest and professional approach to working with the CEFR, supporting educators in making sound, evidence-based decisions for learners at every level.

Learn more about the course and register here

About NILE

NILE is one of the world’s biggest providers of training and development for English language teaching. Based in the UK and working internationally, NILE provides expert-led programmes online and in person, supporting educators, institutions and ministries worldwide. They are regularly involved in the development and implementation of large-scale education reform projects around the world.

NILE is a member of English UK and holds accreditation from the British Council, Eaquals and AQUEDUTO, reflecting its commitment to quality, professional standards and responsible practice.

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

Find out more at avallain.com

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Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Closing the Gap Between Formal and Informal Digital Learning

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Digital learning has evolved significantly over the past few decades, shaped by virtual learning environments, the rise of open, networked technologies and, more recently, the emergence of AI. In this piece, Prof. John Traxler examines the divide between the quality-assured environments of formal education and the more open and less structured world of informal digital learning. He highlights both the challenge and opportunity to develop a balanced space between the extremes, one that requires learners to develop key skills such as criticality, curation, metacognition and reflection, and raises questions about responsibility and opportunity.

Closing the Gap Between Formal and Informal Digital Learning

Author: Prof John Traxler, UNESCO Chair, Commonwealth of Learning Chair and Academic Director of the Avallain Lab

St. Gallen, March 30, 2026 – This piece is based largely on experience, research, writing and analysis of education beyond compulsory schooling (typically from age 16), mostly in the UK, Western Europe and similar international education systems; other sectors and other countries will have their own versions, but are still driven by underlying social, financial, technical and political factors, albeit differently across contexts. The piece aims to present a different perspective on digital learning from the more conventional one and, in doing so, may, in a relatively small space, simplify and generalise; but it is the perspective that matters, and the challenge and opportunity it represents.

The Dawn of Digital Learning

Many years ago, probably for the course of the decade straddling the turn of the century, if learners wanted to access digital educational resources and opportunities, they could only do so as students of some kind of formal education from an established education provider. The World Wide Web existed and was populated by institutions, corporations and organisations, often using the emerging technology of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), aka Learning Management System (LMS), such as Blackboard, WebCT or the open-source Moodle. This was their only access, which meant the institution could define what was learnt, how it was to be learnt and what behaviour was acceptable; the institution controlled the hardware, software and infrastructure. 

Pedagogies, Espoused and Enacted

Interestingly, the rapid emergence of digital learning technologies and the expansion of higher education led to the professionalisation of teaching, no longer an essentially amateur activity by researchers in elite universities. It also led to the increased visibility of teaching, no longer confined to the privacy of the face-to-face seminar room. Not only was there the expectation that academics would learn to teach and be certified once they had, but the theorising of teaching should become much more explicit, no longer intuitive but conceptualised. 

In particular, the component technologies of the VLE, such as the chat and webinar functions, were portrayed as vehicles for social constructive pedagogies, in which learners would interact and engage with each other, and for constructivist pedagogies, in which individualised learning would build on individual understandings. Gone were the days of learners being given content to absorb and retain; instead, their understanding was built on and was valued. Lecturers, it was proposed, would mutate from ‘the sage on the stage’ to the ‘guide by your side’, taking on a more facilitative role rather than acting as the primary source of knowledge.

The VLE did ensure consistency and efficiency; it seemed to allow teaching to be visible and thus monitored, and different lecturers to be swapped into and out of courses according to staffing; it also encouraged the expansion of distance learning, but this in fact offered little competitive advantage since every institution had the same idea and global markets already had global players. 

Many years ago, I remarked to South African colleagues that making students use a VLE was like making them wear a school uniform. The reaction was, ‘What’s wrong with a school uniform?’ So, yes, I understood the need for consistency, equity, stability and quality assurance, but it is not adequate preparation for fashion choices, dress codes and expressing individuality through adult clothing. In other words, structured systems ensure fairness, but not independence.

Unfortunately, institutional digital learning meant that educational change and its institutional processes were now interlocked with IT change and its institutional processes. This meant that slow change became slower as decision-making became more complex. This logjam would be further exacerbated if ‘estates’, the departments managing, commissioning, renovating and remodelling teaching spaces, were also involved, requiring additional consultation and approval.

Twenty or thirty years later, inspection of many VLEs would reveal that they are still used mostly as repositories for notes and slide decks, for assessment hand-in alerts and for the digital submission of assessments, partly necessitated by the need for plagiarism detection.

In short, the pedagogies intended were not the pedagogies being enacted. 

The Industrialisation of Education

Educational institutions were, however, driven by wider societal, financial and political pressures, not just educational or technological factors or fashions.

From a political and financial perspective, there was less public money, as a consequence of the 2008 global financial crisis (‘subprime mortgages’, remember those?). There was also less commitment to a vision of publicly funded education as some vague liberal public good, and instead a shift towards viewing it as a mechanism among competing free-market providers to put more and more trained graduates straight into jobs, leading to enormous pressures to increase throughput, maintain cost-efficiency and ensure consistency. 

Faced with these kinds of pressures, digital learning could save the day, and in effect,  education became electrified and industrialised, with increased throughput now based on a production line of rooms full of networked desktop computers.

What Changed?

What changed in the first decade of the current century was the emergence and growth, and then the universality and ubiquity of personal networked digital technologies, notably the mobile (smart) phone, with all its functions for capturing context and content, as well as tablets and laptops. Alongside this was the rise of web2.0 applications and social media in all its different forms, such as Facebook and WeChat. This also includes blogs, podcasts, video and image sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Instagram, as well as question-and-answer sites such as Reddit and Quora and information and knowledge sites such as Wikipedia and its offshoots. 

All of these empowered users to upload their ideas, images, information and opinions, and to share, discuss, transform, merge, broadcast and discard them on a massive and unprecedented scale. In short, people and communities, not organisations and institutions, could manage, own and control their learning, adapted to whatever style they preferred, at whatever time and with whatever technology they preferred.

The New Knowledge Economy

In a sense, we are describing the transition from knowledge produced in a centralised top-down, centre-out web1.0 fashion from a small number of official producers, namely publishers, universities, ministries and broadcasters using a handful of broadcast technologies, to a flatter, peer-to-peer web 2.0 cottage industry of individuals and communities giving or bartering the knowledge they produce using or appropriating any technologies that are cheap, accessible and familiar. 

It would be a mistake to portray this as democratisation of digital learning, given the ownership, control and politics of these technologies, but it is perhaps demotic. Nor should we assume that this is good or useful knowledge, only that there is a lot of it, some of it faulty, some of it harmful.

Nevertheless, the ‘locus of control’ seems to shift from clearly defined professional teachers to vaguely defined amateur learners. 

The Chasm

So what we have is a chasm between the managed digital environments and contents of formal education, quality assured, professionally managed, and the anarchic and potentially dangerous chaos of informal digital learning. One critique of formal education might be the lack of preparation received by learners in making the transition from one to the other, from being taught, whatever exactly that might mean, to becoming competent, critical, lifelong learners. Another critique, given the sluggishness of education systems in recognising and responding to change in the outside world, is the threat to their credibility. 

Tradition, Nothing More?

Perhaps, this is the wrong argument. In formal education, students wear gowns, write sit-down exams with a pen and learn from a VLE. It has nothing to do with employment skills; it is traditional, and the students collect a certificate if they do it all correctly, just a ‘rite de passage’, a rubber stamp. Perhaps students in education systems do not just learn what they are taught but something else, perhaps independence, socialisation and various other attributes described as maturity? That rather depends on their experiences within fragmented and unstable education systems.

Many years ago, at the dawn of mobile learning, a conference panel were asked, given this kind of analysis, what is now the role of universities? One answer from the panel was: ‘We give degrees.’ With increasing concern about student loans and the graduate premium, if any, this may not be such a great answer. 

Why Does This Matter

It matters because education, or rather learning, matters and the chasm represents a challenge and an opportunity, one that can make or mar economic and social wellbeing for people and communities outside – or probably, inside – formal education. So now, a bigger challenge and opportunity is with us. 

Of course, while many of the players in this discussion have been emerging over the past two decades, a new player suddenly appeared about three years ago, accessible conversational AI, generative artificial intelligence, mediated a chatbot on every laptop, tablet and phone. So we are obliged to ask whether this makes a qualitative difference to the argument or merely an enormous quantitative one. That may be a bigger question than can be addressed here and now, as we see AI haphazardly deployed in formal education and amongst informal learners, presumably changing what needs to be learnt in societies permeated by AI and how it could be learnt.

So, in the meantime, is there some third space, between the risky anarchy of the web and the managed conservatism of formal digital? And if there is such a third space, how does it represent a scalable and sustainable environment?

It is axiomatic that this informal digital learning that we describe rests on familiar, accessible and cheap technologies, both hardware and software, devices and networks, that give users control and confidence, ownership and autonomy. At first sight, there is no business model here; the system is self-sustaining and self-contained. There is, however, for both the individual and collective good, a need for support to nudge users towards efficient and benign learning and away from harmful and wasteful learning. 

The Skills This Now Requires

Criticality would be a key skill, helping users tell good from bad, useful from useless, find the digital tools, content and communities that suit them, and help them question, enquire, scrutinise, and critique what they are getting, who they are getting it from and what choices they have. 

Curation is another key skill, helping users find, evaluate, select, organise and classify the digital tools, content and communities that suit them. Finally, metacognition and reflection will help users understand and improve their own digital learning, digital ethics and digital relationships. 

With some imagination, it should be possible for the edtech industry to develop and populate this third space, a permeable space between the resources of formal education and the freedoms of cyberspace, between the lucrative platforms of the one and the lucrative platforms of the other.

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

Find out more at avallain.com

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Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Use TeacherMatic’s AI Tools to Inspire, Monitor and Motivate in Everyday Teaching

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The latest Language Teaching Takeoff Webinar welcomed first-time guest host Pilar Capaul. As a language teacher and ELT content creator, she shared examples from her own lessons to demonstrate how teachers can use the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition to monitor understanding and create engaging activities.

Use TeacherMatic’s AI tools to Inspire, Monitor and Motivate in Everyday Teaching

London, March 2026 – In ‘Inspire, Monitor, Motivate: Practical AI Tools for Everyday Teaching,’ Pilar showcased the ‘Did you do your homework?’ and ‘Inspiration!’ generators, demonstrating how two of her favourite TeacherMatic AI tools can be used to check learner comprehension and create engaging classroom activities. Drawing on examples from her own lessons, she showed how teachers can adapt tasks to suit different learner profiles, topics and levels.

Moderated by Giada Brisotto, Senior Marketing and Sales Operations Manager at Avallain, the session explored how everyday classroom challenges can be approached with greater confidence and new, creative ideas for lessons and activities.

An AI Toolkit for Everyday Language Teaching Tasks

Pilar introduced the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition, an AI toolkit she values for the range of practical tasks it supports in everyday teaching. With more than 50 generators designed for language educators, teachers can plan lessons, adapt materials and generate meaningful activities that contextualise language for learners. 

She also highlighted that teachers can select the methodology they want to apply, ensuring that the generated activities and resources align with their preferred teaching approach.

Assessing What Students Really Understood

Homework is an important starting point for any lesson. As students enter the classroom, Pilar wants a quick sense of whether they engaged with the material and understood the key ideas. As she explained during the session, ‘I don’t just want to know if they did it. I want to know if they understood it.’

Simply asking students to raise their hands to confirm they completed a homework task rarely provides this level of insight. Instead, our host demonstrated how teachers can use the ‘Did you do your homework?’ generator to turn homework checks into short activities that reveal what learners have actually understood.

Turning Homework Checks into a Lesson Warm-Up

Using a homework task she had set for an upper-intermediate class studying environmental topics, Pilar illustrated her approach to assessing comprehension. Students were asked to watch a video at home and create a mind map highlighting key information. To ensure understanding, she uploaded the video transcript to the ‘Did you do your homework?’ generator, and asked it to produce three short summaries, only one of which correctly reflects the content.

Pilar tailored the activity to B1 learners with a medium-length output. She also included an optional description of the class: energetic teenagers with short attention spans who are accustomed to fast-paced content on platforms like TikTok. The goal was to create something that would capture their attention immediately, while illustrating how teachers can also adapt content to specific learner needs and different classroom contexts.

Refining for Real Classroom Settings

Below the generated content, teachers can find an answer key. Acknowledging that teachers often teach several classes and set many tasks, this resource provides additional reassurance. 

While the generated result already provided what was needed to evaluate learner understanding, she decided to push the platform a little further by considering her learner profile more closely. These students may not be particularly engaged by a topic such as pollution, so she refined the results by suggesting ‘add jokes to make it engaging for teenagers.’ Pilar reminded teachers that AI can also be guided in other ways, for example, by asking it to focus on specific grammar points, such as the present simple, to use narrative tenses or simply to make the activity more playful and engaging.

The updated output showed how even small adjustments can make a noticeable difference. Rather than relying on a standard textbook-style activity, she had something tailored to her learners. She added the task to her lesson plan and asked students to identify the correct summary, creating a lively warm-up at the start of the lesson. This activity encourages students to revisit the homework, reflect on what they have learned and discuss the topic together, while also giving the teacher a clear sense of how well they have understood the video.

Finding Inspiration When a Topic Feels Uninteresting

Sometimes teachers need to cover topics that are not immediately engaging. The ‘Inspiration!’ generator enables teachers to quickly and easily make these lessons feel relevant, meaningful and motivating. 

To demonstrate this generator, our host used a group of her own adult learners. These are A2-level students who had studied English before but were returning to it after a break. They had practised the present simple many times and were beginning to feel frustrated, even though they still needed more practice. In this case, the question was: how do we approach the topic differently and make it fresh again?

Creating and Refining Activities for Greater Engagement

Describe the learner profile: in Pilar’s example, this is a group of busy adults who want to make progress quickly. She then explored the additional settings, selecting the Communicative Language Teaching model so the activities would focus on speaking practice.

The result was a range of classroom ideas connected to the topic ‘Routines around the world’, including matching routines to different cultures, role-play activities based on daily schedules and short quizzes designed to practise question formation. Rather than repeating familiar coursebook exercises, the activities provided new ways to approach the same language point while keeping learners actively involved.

She also illustrated how these ideas can be refined further. When the webinar participants suggested turning the activities into games, she typed ‘include more games’ into the refine box. The regenerated output included additional suggestions, such as board games, creating opportunities for students to practise the language while focusing on interaction and friendly competition.

From Ideas to Real Classroom Use

Throughout the session, it was emphasised that the value of these generators lies in how teachers use and adapt the results. She also highlighted the information icon available within each generator, which provides guidance, examples and practical tips for getting the most out of each tool.

Once activities are generated, they can be exported and reused in future lessons. Pilar advised users to save outputs so they can be incorporated into lesson planning, revisited for revision activities or shared with colleagues to see how they work in different classrooms. In this way, the generated ideas become part of a broader teaching process rather than a one-off resource.

By combining quick activity generation with teacher judgement and refinement, the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition can support teachers in creating lessons that remain engaging, adaptable and relevant to their learners.

Explore the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition

The TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition provides language educators with practical, safe AI tools for planning lessons, generating engaging classroom activities and developing engaging language learning experiences. Teachers remain in control of every step, reviewing and refining outputs so they reflect their teaching approach, learners and classroom context.

Discover more here

Next in the Webinar Series

Provide Meaningful, Timely Feedback at Scale with the Power of AI

🗓 Thursday, 16th April
🕛 12:00 – 12:30 BST (13:00 – 13:30 CEST)

Join Joanna Szoke, freelance teacher trainer and AI in education specialist, for the next session in the Language Teaching Takeoff Webinar Series as she explores the challenges of delivering meaningful, timely feedback and the role AI can play in supporting this process. 

See the new Advanced Feedback generator in action, designed to support feedback workflows at scale while maintaining teacher oversight.

Click here to register and secure a spot

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

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Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Exploring People’s Values, Feelings and Knowledge Beyond Traditional Methods

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Simply asking questions is not enough to understand the people we serve. Effective research and responsible design require more thoughtful, grounded ways of getting to know users, learners and clients. In this piece, Prof. John Traxler reflects on the limitations of familiar methods and explores alternative approaches to uncover values, feelings and knowledge that are often difficult to articulate. He further examines the ethical and methodological assumptions that shape how we gather and interpret insight.

Exploring People’s Values, Feelings and Knowledge Beyond Traditional Methods

Author: Prof John Traxler, UNESCO Chair, Commonwealth of Learning Chair and Academic Director of the Avallain Lab

The Challenge

St. Gallen, February 23, 2026 – We all want, or we all need to know about the feelings, knowledge and values of other people. So how do we get answers? We ask them questions. Is this a good idea? No, rarely, and this piece explains why and the broader scope of any findings or conclusions. If it were even possible that the people concerned gave accurate, complete and trustworthy answers, does this tell us anything at all about the views, feelings or knowledge of any other people, in any other place, at any other time?

Someone once observed that much accepted psychological theory is based on research using psychology undergraduate subjects because such subjects are the nearest, cheapest and easiest for university-based academics conducting psychological research. That is not necessarily a good basis for theories supposedly applicable to the rest of humanity. At an early age, Freud supposedly explained our inner workings, but did so based on a small number of case studies of some very ill people. Not a good evidence base.

The Usual Suspects and Their Defects

The ‘usual suspects’ are roughly interviews, semi-structured or otherwise, questionnaires, focus groups and surveys. They get routinely rounded up whenever anyone has a question that needs an answer. They do, however, have two overall problems, namely, firstly, that they will only get the answer to the question that they asked, nothing else, nothing more important, nothing more relevant, and secondly, the question or the questioning may be so flawed that they do not even really get that. 

To be more specific, the people answering the question may not know what it means; they may misunderstand or misinterpret it; they may be uncomfortable answering it, uncomfortable disclosing their ignorance of the answer or uncomfortable with its implications; they may mishear or misread the question. They may be consciously or unconsciously needing to perform a particular identity or persona, to appear as knowledgeable, affable, professional, naive, superior, cautious, flirtatious, relaxed, important, distant or rushed, depending on the context and depending on their psychological needs and preferences, and thus only provide answers in line with that performance. These may only lead to changes in emphasis or tone, but can still be highly significant.

Why Answers Cannot Be Taken at Face Value

Examples come easily. People who use pornography but won’t admit to it, people who tell me my lecture was great but tell each other it was rubbish; people who give me any answer for fear of disappointing me with no answer, people who rush to reach the end of the survey or the end of the interview; people who don’t want to be different or conversely do really want to be different, and so on. In essence, people are not machines, and neither are these methods objective or scientific.

To take a step back from questions, we need to think about the different kinds of thoughts and feelings that people have and thus try to match our methods of enquiry to those different kinds of thoughts and feelings. Finding out about people’s aspirations is not the same as finding out about their height; finding out about the future is not the same as finding out about the past; finding out about their habits is not the same as finding out about their worries. 

Furthermore, we all know things without realising we know them or without being able to clearly express them; being able to change manual gear, lace your shoes or play the guitar does not mean being able to recollect or explain them, they are intuitive, tacit or compiled; some activities and assumptions are unconscious or ‘hard-wired’ and a question will not produce a useful account or explanation. This means that questioning is not always effective, and a portfolio of alternative methods is needed, each appropriate to the type of knowledge, feeling or value being explored. We briefly mention some later, but in the context of procurement, perhaps models, role-play, simulation or prototypes are a more useful way of eliciting requirements than merely asking clients what they would like.

All of these concerns worsen as we attempt to question people more distant or different from ourselves, as do the ethical concerns, which is another reason for exploring a portfolio of alternative methods.

Methodological Limits and Ethical Concerns

The commonly used methods are not only methodologically problematic, in the sense that they are not necessarily trustworthy, but also ethically problematic. They privilege and empower the questioner, turning the people involved into passive data sources, and the greater the distance, the difference and the differential between the questioner and the people answering, the greater this ethical problem. Think only of middle-class professionals questioning working-class people, the employed questioning the jobless, men questioning women, Europeans questioning Africans, the neurotypical questioning the neurodiverse, the settled questioning the nomadic, the urban questioning the rural, the affluent questioning the poor and many other comparable dichotomies. These may be generalisations or simplifications, but the problem should be apparent even in less blatant situations.

There are a variety of common mistakes. Quantitative findings, based on statistics, usually provide precise percentage figures while overlooking small sample sizes and confounding contextual factors. Whilst qualitative findings based on interviews or focus groups can depend merely on ‘cherry-picking’ the most attractive and agreeable quotes to make their case.

There are tactical improvements, perhaps making the best of a bad job. The literature on interview structuring and questionnaire design can give enormous amounts of guidance. ‘Start with easy topics, don’t be too challenging too soon.’ ‘Don’t ask questions that are double negatives.’ ‘Don’t ask questions that have multiple clauses’, such as ‘do you like apples and oranges?’ or ‘do you not dislike pears?’. It is also important to think about changing the delivery or the setting to adapt to the barriers or challenges, and think about a proxy for the researcher nearer to the class or culture of the research participants.

The Usual Suspects and the Alternatives

OK, so if the ‘usual suspects’ are methodologically and ethically problematic, are there any alternatives? More to the point, are there any established, efficient, cheap and trustworthy alternatives? Luckily, the answer is ‘yes’, but context is the caveat and expertise and experience might be the prerequisites. By context, we mean that one-size-fits-all will not work; thus, expertise and experience are needed to make choices, allowances and adaptations that are context- and circumstance-dependent.

We can provide examples, but the underlying motivation is to provide a space and opportunity for people’s thoughts and feelings to emerge as candidly as possible. One stance that can help with this is Personal Construct Theory, PCT. This suggests that people are like scientists, creating unique mental frameworks called constructs, ways of seeing the world, to interpret and predict events in their lives, however trivial, embarrassing, superstitious, irrational, or mundane. Behaviour stemming from these personal understandings rather than from objective reality, these are ways to make a bit of sense of the worlds in which each lives. This, in turn, leads to a range of tools and techniques to elicit personal constructs and gain small insights into how each person understands the world.

Card sorts are one such tool, in which individuals repeatedly sort cards of images or ideas to identify underlying clusterings in how they perceive or apprehend them, without being asked for any rationalisation, explanation or justification. Card sorts, despite or because of their simplicity and efficiency, have an established track record in designing products and websites, accessing preferences and reactions that people cannot necessarily easily articulate. Laddering is a companion follow-up technique that repeatedly asks ‘why?’ to uncover the deeper foundations of preferences for the clusterings. Again, efficient, effective and cheap. Both are only slightly more sophisticated than these explanations suggest, but still ethically more acceptable than the ’usual suspects’ since the explanation is also not much more sophisticated, and consent really is ‘informed’.

Alternative Tools, Formats and Settings

There are others, from other academic or commercial sources, rich pictures, a way of community members or organisation members, say employees or clients, expressing alliances, affiliations, antagonisms, transactions and relationships, with just cartoonish drawings. Without them, any survey or focus group might be hopelessly naive about what is bubbling away under the surface.

Tackling the challenge from a different direction, it can be worth asking whether the formats by which communities or cultures interact and discuss might map onto a format that we as European researchers would already recognise; is the talking circle near enough to a focus group, for example, and can we meet in the middle with a little adaptation? 

This suggests, of course, that the surroundings as well as the format are important, some more naturalistic, informal and relaxing than, say, a university office, interview room or laboratory, especially when video or audio recording can add extra intimidation. Some market researchers, for example, testing television advertisements, will mock up the apparently authentic living room of the target demographic audiences. This would be complete with a TV in the corner, pictures on the walls, tatty sofas, chairs, coffee tables and hidden cameras, before recruiting families to inhabit this ersatz living room and watch television programmes and un-self-consciously, the proposed advertisements.

So What Have We Learnt?

Clearly, don’t just round up the ‘usual suspects’. More positively, think about the nature of your enquiry and the nature of the people who can help with it. Consider the findings and your claims and avoid overselling them. Be brave, be eclectic, experiment, reflect and adapt, but build on what others have done and ask why they did it. It would be unwise not to explore how the expertise and experience captured, albeit imperfectly, by AI might at least allow us to explore permutations and possibilities, nudging our imaginations.

These efforts are, in the end, about understanding our users, learners and clients more fully in order to respond to them more appropriately and responsibly.

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

Find out more at avallain.com

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Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Plan a Comprehensive and Impactful Course with TeacherMatic

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The latest Language Teaching Takeoff webinar welcomed back educator and edtech specialist Nik Peachey, who explored how the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition can support the full cycle of planning: from course design to detailed lesson preparation, through to meaningful lesson wrap-ups that reinforce learning.

Plan a Comprehensive and Impactful Course with TeacherMatic

London, February 2026 – In ‘Plan Smarter and Teach with Confidence,’ Nik focused on course planning and its often time-intensive components. He demonstrated how teachers, academic managers and directors of studies can use TeacherMatic’s AI generators, including the ‘Scheme of Work / Curriculum Plan’ generator, to support this work while maintaining professional control.

Moderated by Giada Brisotto, Senior Marketing and Sales Operations Manager at Avallain, the session focused not only on planning but on developing it in greater detail, from course design through to fully structured lessons and effective wrap-ups.

Before Planning a Course 

Nik began by acknowledging the time-intensive nature of developing effective courses. He emphasised the importance of reducing repetitive preparation, building clear planning structures and aligning content with learner levels. To support this process, TeacherMatic provides AI tools for each stage of course development, enabling teachers to build structured plans while keeping content aligned with the CEFR.

He also demonstrated how generators can be quickly located using simple filter settings. Users can filter by task or role to surface the most relevant tools and favourite the ones they use most often, making the planning process more efficient.

Before moving into the generators themselves, Nik encouraged participants to consider lesson wrap-ups as part of the planning process. This step is often overlooked but plays an important role in reinforcing learning and supporting retention at the end of each lesson.

Creating a Course Plan

Nik opened the demonstration with the ‘Scheme of Work / Curriculum Plan’ generator, showing how users can plan a course for a specific group of learners. Using the Sustainable Development Goals as the course theme, he defined key topics, set the number of sessions to six and selected a table format at the B1 level. Additional details, such as learner age and optional support materials, were added to personalise the course further.

He also selected a pedagogical model, choosing Task-Based Learning, and showed how course creators can receive guidance on learning needs. The result was a clearly structured scheme of work presented in table form, with six session titles and supporting descriptions. Each session followed a task-based framework with pre-task, main task, post-task and wrap-up stages, and concluded with a review and action plan. 

Building Out Individual Lessons

Once a course plan is in place, each session needs to be developed in greater detail. A lesson outline alone is rarely sufficient, so the focus shifted to how the ‘Lesson Plan’ generator can expand a single session into a fully structured lesson. Nik demonstrated how to define a topic, clarify lesson aims, and set timing and a pedagogical model, all while keeping the lesson aligned with CEFR levels, skills and subscales.

The generated plan followed a clear, task-based structure. It was organised to include an introduction, main activity, language focus and summary, with suggested resources and homework. This provided a detailed foundation that could be refined and adapted, enabling teachers, academic managers and directors of studies to move from outline to delivery with greater confidence, while reducing preparation time. 

Reinforcing Learning as Part of the Plan

The final stage of the workflow focused on lesson wrap-ups. This is an area often overlooked in planning but essential for reinforcing learning and encouraging reflection.

Using the ‘Lesson Wrap-Up’ generator, Nik showed how teachers can set the topic, CEFR level and learner profile, as well as include specific learning needs or supporting materials. The generator then produces a range of structured activities designed to check understanding and prompt reflection. Activities included true-or-false checks, gap fills, discussion prompts and poster creation, which Nik noted was a particularly effective way for learners to reflect while engaging more creatively with the topic.

By building this final stage into the planning process, teachers can close lessons with purpose, allowing learners to review, reflect and retain key language while ensuring that each session connects clearly to the wider course.

From Big Picture to Lesson Reflection

A strong course considers each stage of the teaching process, from the initial structure through to the reinforcement of learning at the end of a lesson. Nik demonstrated how this full workflow can be supported within TeacherMatic, progressing from a course plan to detailed lesson planning and, finally, to lesson wrap-ups that consolidate learning.

With CEFR alignment embedded throughout, teachers can build from the big picture into individual sessions and then use additional generators to create supporting materials. Nik demonstrated how filters, such as ‘Speaking’ and ‘Reading’, can quickly identify relevant tools, enabling teachers to produce resources aligned with lesson objectives. Plans and materials can be saved and shared across a school account, supporting collaboration and reducing duplication. 

Together, this structured flow enables teachers, academic managers and directors of studies to plan with greater clarity, maintain professional control and ensure that each lesson contributes meaningfully to the wider course.

Explore the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition

For educators seeking greater clarity and consistency in planning, the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition provides CEFR-aligned generators to support course design, lesson development, course materials and lesson wrap-ups, with the flexibility to refine and adapt plans across contexts.

Discover more here

Next in the Webinar Series

Inspire, Monitor, Motivate: Practical AI Tools for Everyday Teaching

🗓 Thursday, 12th March
🕛 12:00 – 12:30 GMT | 13:00 – 13:30 CET

Join first-time guest host Pilar Capaul, language teacher and ELT content creator, for a practical session focused on real classroom use cases. 

Pilar will demonstrate how two TeacherMatic generators can support everyday teaching by drawing on examples from her own lessons. See how the ‘Did you do your homework?’ generator can be used to check understanding and completion, and how the ‘Inspiration!’ generator can spark motivation and engagement.

Click here to register and secure a spot

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

_ 

Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

York Press Selects Avallain Magnet and Avallain Author to Support International Programme Delivery

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York Press, a long-established UK educational publisher with strong international reach, has selected Avallain Magnet to support the digital delivery of its educational programmes. The partnership strengthens York Press’s work with Ministries of Education, schools and institutional partners worldwide while enabling the publisher to extend its programmes internationally through scalable, high-quality digital learning delivery.

York Press Selects Avallain Magnet and Avallain Author to Support International Programme Delivery

St. Gallen, January 2026 – York Press has entered into a partnership with Avallain to use Avallain Magnet, our peerless and AI-integrated learning management system, as the digital learning platform for delivering its educational programmes across international markets.

A Publisher with Deep Roots and International Reach

Established in 1944, York Press has been active in educational publishing for more than 80 years. Headquartered in the UK, the company operates internationally across the public and private education sectors, with a strong track record of collaborating with institutional partners worldwide. 

York Press focuses on the development of learner-centred materials for English Language Teaching and school education, aligning pedagogical quality with local curricula and educational priorities.

The company is also widely recognised for its long-term partnership with Pearson UK through the York Notes revision guides for English Language and Literature.

What Avallain Magnet Enables for Educational Publishers

Avallain Magnet is a powerful, customisable, end-to-end learning management system with AI-integrated technology. It enables publishers and education providers to deliver structured digital educational programmes while retaining control over content, pedagogy and learner experience.

Designed for deployment across institutions, regions and markets, Avallain Magnet provides the flexibility required to support different curricula, learner needs and delivery models. This makes it particularly suitable for international publishers such as York Press, which work with public-sector partners and operate across multiple geographies.

Supporting York Press’ Digital Strategy and Programme Expansion

Through the use of Avallain Magnet, York Press strengthens its ability to deliver programmes digitally to Ministries of Education and other institutional partners worldwide. The platform also supports the publisher’s plans to deliver programmes internationally and consistently across markets beyond any single region.

Avallain Magnet enables York Press to scale digital delivery efficiently while ensuring consistency, accessibility and quality across markets. This allows programmes developed for specific educational contexts to be adapted and delivered reliably in different countries and learning environments.

In addition to Avallain Magnet, York Press is also implementing Avallain Author, our flexible, AI-powered authoring tool. This allows York Press to create publisher-grade learning content at scale, enabling rich interactivity, pedagogical consistency and efficient content production. Content created in Avallain Author is seamlessly delivered through Avallain Magnet, supporting an integrated workflow from content creation to programme delivery.

‘York Press’s partnership with Avallain further enhances its ability to deliver high-quality educational resources and services worldwide by leveraging Avallain’s innovative digital learning platform’, says Habib Sayegh, CEO of York Press.

A Long-Term Collaboration with Strategic Impact

The partnership is the result of several years of discussion and collaboration and represents a significant step in York Press’s digital development. By combining York Press’s publishing expertise, international credibility and institutional relationships with Avallain Magnet’s digital delivery capabilities, the collaboration establishes a strong foundation for sustainable growth and global reach.

About York Press

Founded in 1944, York Press has been at the forefront of international education for over 80 years. As a family-owned and operated company, we take pride in our rich history and our commitment to excellent education. We use our deep understanding of the evolving educational landscape to continue to innovate and adapt to meet the needs of educators and learners worldwide. Our expertise spans both public and private education sectors, offering a comprehensive range of services to Ministries of Education and the private education sector worldwide.

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Make Exam Preparation More Engaging and Effective

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The first Language Teaching Takeoff Webinar of the year welcomed AI in education specialist and freelance teacher trainer Joanna Szoke, who explored how teachers can use the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition to create dynamic, engaging exam practice.

Make Exam Preparation More Engaging and Effective

London, January 2026 – In ‘Create Dynamic and Engaging Exam Practice for Your Students’, Joanna discussed assessment and feedback. She demonstrated how teachers can use the ‘Cambridge Style Exam Prep Generator’ and ‘Worksheet’ generator to produce targeted materials for learners preparing for high-pressure assessments.

Moderated by Giada Brisotto, Senior Marketing and Sales Operations Manager at Avallain, the session reinforced the importance of moving beyond assessment as simply a grade, positioning it instead as an opportunity to support learner progress and give teachers clearer insight into what to reinforce and revisit.

Assessment and Feedback

Joanna began by emphasising the close relationship between assessment and feedback, describing them as a continuous cycle rather than separate classroom tasks. When assessment is used as an ongoing process, it becomes a practical way to identify what learners understand, where they need further support and how teachers can adapt to meet those needs.

Rather than treating assessment as an endpoint, Joanna encouraged teachers to use it as a guide to strengthen learner progress and to ensure that feedback remains purposeful and actionable.

Exam English vs Real-Life English

Exam preparation can easily become focused on format and technique, but meaningful practice also needs to develop transferable communication skills. Joanna stressed the importance of connecting exam tasks to real-life language use. By making this connection, teachers ensure that learners can apply what they practise beyond the assessment setting.

Joanna explained how exam-style activities can be adapted to reflect authentic contexts and learner interests, keeping preparation engaging while still targeting the specific demands of the assessment. This approach supports both exam readiness and broader language development without compromising either.

Cambridge-Style Exam Practice in Action

To bring these ideas into a practical teaching context, Joanna demonstrated the ‘Cambridge Style Exam Prep Generator’ and how language educators can use it to create practice tasks aligned with Cambridge English levels A2 Key, B1 Preliminary, B2 First and C1 Advanced. Depending on the level selected, the generator supports different paper formats, including Reading and Writing at A2 Key, Reading at B1 Preliminary and Reading and Use of English at both B2 First and C1 Advanced.

Joanna highlighted how quickly teachers can generate exam-style materials, then refine them to suit their learners and classroom context. Teachers can adjust the topic, language focus or task demands to create more relevant practice and keep preparation adaptable. She also emphasised that these materials are intended solely for practice. Teachers should use them alongside official past papers and published exam preparation resources, with teacher review and adaptation remaining essential.

Flexible Worksheets for Targeted Practice

To build level-appropriate practice materials that can be adapted to different teaching contexts, Joanna also showcased the ‘Worksheet’ generator. Worksheets are a reliable format for reinforcing learning and checking understanding, particularly during assessment preparation.

The demonstration highlighted how teachers can generate worksheets on almost any topic, select activity types and adjust outputs to reflect learner profiles and specific needs. Teachers can also refine results further, remove suggested answers where appropriate and export content into editable formats for layout changes and added visuals. This flexibility makes it easier to create engaging, targeted practice while keeping teacher review and adaptation central.

Supporting Confident Exam Preparation

Effective exam preparation is not only about measuring performance. It is also an opportunity to strengthen learning through purposeful assessment, timely feedback and targeted practice that reflects real assessment demands.

With CEFR alignment built into the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition, teachers can generate level-appropriate materials that support structured preparation and classroom needs. By combining tools such as the ‘Cambridge Style Exam Prep Generator’ and the ‘Worksheet’ generator with professional judgement and refinement, teachers can create engaging practice that supports learner confidence and readiness when it matters most.

Explore the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition

Built for language teaching, the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition enables teachers to create CEFR-aligned materials for exam preparation, assessment, classroom practice and more, with flexibility to refine outputs for different learners and contexts.

Discover more here

Next in the Webinar Series

Plan Smarter and Teach with Confidence

🗓 Thursday, 12th February
🕛 12:00 – 12:30 GMT | 13:00 – 13:30 CET

Join award-winning educator Nik Peachey as he demonstrates how to use planning generators in the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition. See AI tools such as the ‘Scheme of Work/Curriculum Plan’ generator, which are designed to support teachers, academic managers and directors of studies in reducing repetitive preparation and creating structures that can be adapted to any teaching context.

Click here to register and secure a spot

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

_ 

Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Language Education and Technology in Times of Rapid Change: Ahead of the TISLID Conference

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Rapid technological, social and linguistic change is reshaping language education and research. In this piece, Prof John Traxler reflects on Avallain’s collaboration with the TISLID conference series (Technological Innovation for Specialized Linguistic Domains), exploring the limits of traditional, stable frameworks and considering why more adaptive, responsive models are increasingly necessary. This article also highlights the importance of sustained dialogue between researchers and education technology developers in translating research into practice.

Language Education and Technology in Times of Rapid Change: Ahead of the TISLID Conference

Author: Prof John Traxler, UNESCO Chair, Commonwealth of Learning Chair and Academic Director of the Avallain Lab

St. Gallen, January 16, 2026 – Language as a whole, language learning and digital education are evolving faster than ever, and all three are becoming more and more inextricably mixed as digital technologies, especially AI, become cheaper, easier and widely accessible, and societies become more and more global, connected, changeable and mobile. 

This means that relevant research must not only be conducted quickly and effectively, but also disseminated and applied equally quickly and effectively, applied to technical development and pedagogic delivery, and extended beyond research communities. So the interface between academic research communities and the edtech sector needs to be effective and responsive, but it has its problems. 

The Limits of Traditional Publishing

Publications, meaning books and journals, used to be the gold standard, their trustworthiness and relevance guaranteed by peer review processes conducted blind by expert reviewers. These are now less widely used, in general, because the rapidity of technical, educational and social change means they struggle to keep up, especially books, and they have very limited readership. 

Research journals have their own unique problems; over the last decade, pressure from research funders, both UK and EU, has insisted on ‘open’ publication, meaning research journals must be freely available to any interested reader, no paywall, no subscription, no restrictions. This, however, has disrupted the publishers’ business model, which previously relied on libraries and readers paying to read. So now publishers must derive their income from writers, not readers, and introduce an APC (author processing charge) of several hundred to several thousand euros or dollars. 

Professional researchers are, of course, still under the systemic pressure from their institutions to ‘publish or perish’ in order to increase their institutional rankings, and so ‘predatory journals’ emerge with dubious credentials and dubious quality assurance, happy to publish very quickly on receipt of the appropriate APC. AI has only amplified these problems, partly because of the rapidly increasing volume of AI research to be published and partly because some of it is probably specious, written by AI. This account is a slight simplification; there are exceptions to each of these assertions, but the general direction of travel is as described.

Responding to Change: Avallain Lab and the Importance of Dialogue

This state of affairs was, incidentally, one of the reasons for establishing the Avallain Lab, namely, creating a more responsive and trustworthy interface between research and the company, and building in expertise and experience as publication becomes less straightforward.

In turn, this shift means that the other medium of dissemination, namely gatherings, meaning seminars and conferences, becomes correspondingly more important. 

This leads us to our collaboration with an upcoming conference on shared interests, including language, learning and digital technologies. The conference is one of the TISLID series in Spain, ‘Technological Innovation for Specialized Linguistic Domains’, a long-running conference series hosted by the ATLAS research group, ‘Applying Technology to Languages’, in UNED, Spain’s national distance learning university, based in Madrid. It takes place in Úbeda, Spain, from the 22nd to the 24th April 2026.

Rethinking Language Teaching and Linguistic Research in a Liquid World

The conference series aims to foster interdisciplinary dialogue among teachers, researchers and professionals on how to rethink language teaching and linguistic research in a liquid world, as Zygmunt Bauman’s theory suggests, a world never stable long enough to comprehend and is characterised by change, uncertainty and digitalisation.

‘Language Research and Education in Fluid Times: The Rise of Adaptive Competences’  is the conference theme for the next iteration. It focuses on the study, teaching and learning of languages, contextualised within a world in a constant and vertiginous state of evolution and transformation, of identity as well as relationships. This world is driven by multilingual needs and conditioned by globalisation, digital technology, mobility and artificial intelligence.

The title aims to suggest how human activity must adapt to unprecedentedly dynamic contexts in which linguistic, cultural, technological and communicative boundaries are increasingly blurred. In these contexts, human beings face uncertainty, diversity and new realities, some unforeseen, many ephemeral, that demand solutions that are both ethical and open, innovative and adaptive, hybrid and transdisciplinary.

The Rise of Adaptive Competence

In response to these conditions, the concept of adaptive competence becomes central. Rooted in soft or transversal skills, adaptive competence encompasses abilities such as cognitive flexibility, communicative resilience, digital and media literacy and intercultural competence. 

The conference reflects a probable paradigm shift in language education and research, namely one that moves from stable, prescriptive frameworks toward fluid, adaptive models better aligned with the complexities and transformations of contemporary societies. With such a shift, edtech developers and the edtech sector clearly need to be closely and frequently listening to researchers and their findings. Avallain is pleased to be working with this community of researchers and to be involved in its conference and its publications as part of an ongoing mission to lead the sector in translating research into action.

Discover more details about the TISLID conference series here

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

Find out more at avallain.com

_

Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com

Responsibly Adopting AI in Language Education

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For the final episode of 2025, the Language Teaching Takeoff Webinar Series brought together experts from across language education and edtech to examine how AI can be adopted responsibly in teaching practice.

Responsibly Adopting AI in Language Education

London, December 2025 – In ‘Transforming Language Teaching with Ethical AI: A Panel Discussion’, educator and edtech consultant Nik Peachey, teacher and ELT content creator Pilar Capaul, teacher trainer and lecturer Joanna Szoke, and Ian Johnstone, VP Partnerships at Avallain, discussed ethical considerations, institutional responsibility and practical ways to integrate AI with confidence.

Moderated by Giada Brisotto, Senior Marketing and Sales Operations Manager at Avallain, the session examined how AI toolkits, such as the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition, can be used in teaching practice to improve efficiency without diminishing teacher agency.

The Potential and Advantages of AI in Language Teaching

Opening the discussion, Nik identified time as one of the most persistent challenges for language teachers, from marking and lesson planning to adapting materials for specific classroom contexts. He noted that while coursebooks provide structure, they are often designed for global audiences and may not fully reflect the needs of individual learners.

Nik explained that AI can help teachers adapt and extend materials more efficiently, supporting personalisation without adding complexity. He referenced AI toolkits such as the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition, where generators and CEFR-aligned inputs reduce reliance on prompt-writing skills and support differentiation, especially for learners with diverse needs.

From a teacher training perspective, Joanna reinforced this point by highlighting speed and responsiveness as key advantages. She explained how AI tools enable teachers to generate resources for niche teaching contexts and specific learner profiles, allowing educators and trainers to focus more on pedagogy and professional reflection rather than on content production.

AI in the Classroom: Practical Examples that Move Beyond Content Creation

Drawing on classroom experience, Pilar discussed how AI-generated activities can serve clear learning purposes rather than simply producing content.

Using TeacherMatic generators like ‘Have you done your homework’, she replaces a simple homework check with a diagnostic warm-up that reveals whether learners have truly understood a task, enabling her to decide how the lesson should progress and where support is most needed.

To make reading more purposeful, the ‘Ask an Expert’ generator prompts learners to read with intent, question information and evaluate meaning rather than read passively.

The Role of Education Technology Providers in Ethical AI Adoption

Shifting the discussion to institutional responsibility, Ian noted that education technology companies must ensure AI does not begin to lead educational practice. While new capabilities may appear compelling, he stressed that decision-making should remain educator-led, with tools designed to support teaching rather than dictate it.

Ian highlighted the importance of sustained research, classroom piloting and collaboration with educators and institutions to refine how AI is deployed in practice. He also emphasised the role of providers in sharing what they learn through structured guidance and training, empowering teachers and organisations to build confidence, develop informed approaches and navigate the broader shift AI is bringing to language education.

Where Does AI Add the Most Value for Language Teachers

The benefits of AI depend primarily on what teachers need to achieve. Joanna explained that for planning and administrative work, it can reduce time spent on tasks such as drafting reports or lesson outlines, provided teachers remain attentive to the data they share and treat outputs as a starting point rather than a final version. At the same time, she strongly argued for classroom use, where working with AI alongside students creates opportunities to model critical evaluation, ethical decision-making and responsible use, helping learners understand not just how to use these tools but also how to question them.

Ian reaffirmed that responsibility cannot sit solely with teachers. He added that education technology companies must take an active role in designing safeguards into AI toolkits, using clear interface guidance to discourage inappropriate use and implementing measures that reduce the risk of sensitive data being shared. By embedding these considerations at both the practical and systemic levels, edtech providers can ensure ethical use is built in by design, rather than relying on individual educators to navigate these challenges on their own.

Getting Started with AI in Daily Practice

Nik encouraged teachers to start small and let curiosity guide their first steps, suggesting they focus on a single area, such as planning, feedback or material creation, rather than trying to do everything at once. He advised identifying everyday pain points and using AI as a conversational partner to explore possible approaches. At the same time, Joanna added that teachers should not overcomplicate the process, noting that simple questions and natural interaction are often the most effective way to begin building confidence.

Ethics, Transparency and Authentic Classroom Use

Returning to the ethics question, Ian stressed the importance of preserving the dialogic nature of learning, ensuring that interaction remains a meaningful exchange rather than a one-way output. He explained that TeacherMatic is designed as an educational AI toolkit, with a built-in chat environment and filters that set clear boundaries for what can be shared and generated in a learning context, reducing the risk of inappropriate content or data misuse. 

At an organisational level, Ian highlighted Avallain’s responsibility to underpin this work through ongoing research conducted by a dedicated lab, where academic expertise focuses on ethical frameworks, regulatory developments and the broader implications of AI use, including environmental impact. Together, these layers ensure that safeguards are embedded by design and continuously reviewed as technology evolves.

From a classroom perspective, Pilar examined how authenticity is maintained when AI-generated materials are shaped around real learners. Using the TeacherMatic AI toolkit, she highlighted the use of generators such as ‘Inspiration!’ and ‘Adapt your Content’ to create multiple versions of activities on the same topic. This allows students to work at an appropriate level, feel recognised and engage more confidently, reinforcing that AI-generated materials remain meaningful only when guided by teacher insight and an understanding of learner context.

Assessment, Exam Preparation and the Limits of Automation

Joanna addressed the use of AI in assessment by drawing a clear distinction between formative and summative contexts. For formative assessment, she highlighted the value of AI in generating feedback and action points to support ongoing learning, while emphasising the need for professional judgement. In summative contexts, she noted that although automated scoring can play a role for specific task types, final decisions should remain with the teacher, adding that when working with AI, ‘I will be curious and cautious.’

Building on this, Ian reinforced that generative AI should not be positioned as a decision-maker in summative assessment. He explained that language models form a new understanding each time they evaluate a piece of work and do not draw on the accumulated experience of a trained language teacher. As a result, they can offer multiple, variable interpretations rather than a consistent, auditable evaluation. For summative contexts, he argued, there should always be a role for teacher review and moderation, noting that only rule-based, algorithmic approaches, where assessment criteria are explicitly defined and auditable, may be appropriate for high-stakes decisions.

Looking at day-to-day teaching, Pilar drew on her experience preparing learners for international exams, particularly teenagers who may feel disengaged or under pressure. She explained how the rollout of the TeacherMatic ‘Cambridge Style Exam Prep Generator’ has enabled her to personalise exam-style activities around familiar topics, helping sustain motivation while maintaining relevance. Working in a bilingual setting with varying proficiency, she also described how creating resources on the same content at different levels enabled all students to prepare together while still working at a level that felt appropriate and achievable.

Looking Ahead: Supporting Teachers as AI Tools Evolve

AI toolsets will increasingly become multimodal, enabling teachers to generate audio, images, video and presentations alongside text. Nik noted that this could significantly reduce the time teachers spend searching for suitable media, allowing them to create more stimulating, multimedia-rich lessons and adapt more easily to online or blended learning environments.

Ian expanded on this by placing these developments within a broader roadmap for educational AI. While TeacherMatic already supports the creation of worksheets and lesson plans, he explained that interactive learning experiences are the next step. Drawing on Avallain’s background in interactive content, he outlined how integrating generative capabilities with interactive courseware will enable teachers to deliver more engaging activities and assignments directly in the classroom, rather than treating interactivity as a separate layer.

Joanna emphasised that technology alone is not enough. She stressed the importance of building teacher confidence and critical awareness, encouraging educators to experiment, ask questions and practise with AI tools while remaining alert to hype. Maintaining professional judgement, she argued, means staying attentive to how outputs are generated and preserving a healthy distance between automated suggestions and pedagogical decision-making.

Ethical Adoption as a Shared Responsibility

The value of AI in language education depends on how thoughtfully it is adopted. When pedagogy leads, and professional judgement remains central, AI toolkits, such as TeacherMatic, can empower teachers to manage their workload, design purposeful learning activities and respond more effectively to diverse learner needs.

At the same time, ethical adoption requires shared responsibility. Teachers need space to experiment critically and build confidence, while education technology providers must ensure safeguards, transparency and ongoing research are embedded by design. 

Explore the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition

The TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition is an AI toolkit specifically designed for language educators. Through its purpose-built AI generators, teachers can create activities, support planning, approach assessment and more with greater consistency and control, while reducing time spent on routine tasks.

Discover more here

Next in the Webinar Series

Create Dynamic and Engaging Exam Practice for Your Students

🗓 Thursday, 22nd January
🕛 12:00 – 12:30 GMT | 13:00 – 13:30 CET

The next edition of the Language Teaching Takeoff Webinar Series will welcome Joanna Szoke. A freelance teacher trainer and AI in education specialist, she will open the new year with a practical session focused on exam preparation.

Her first episode will demonstrate the ‘Cambridge Style Exam Prep Generator’ within the TeacherMatic Language Teaching Edition, alongside other generators designed for assessment-focused use. The session will explore how teachers can create engaging exam-style practice, adapt tasks to different learner needs and approach assessment in ways that support confidence and progression.

Click here to register and secure a spot

About Avallain

For more than two decades, Avallain has enabled publishers, institutions and educators to create and deliver world-class digital education products and programmes. Our award-winning solutions include Avallain Author, an AI-powered authoring tool, Avallain Magnet, a peerless LMS with integrated AI, and TeacherMatic, a ready-to-use AI toolkit created for and refined by educators.

Our technology meets the highest standards with accessibility and human-centred design at its core. Through Avallain Intelligence, our framework for the responsible use of AI in education, we empower our clients to unlock AI’s full potential, applied ethically and safely. Avallain is ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified and a participant in the United Nations Global Compact.

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Contact:

Daniel Seuling

VP Client Relations & Marketing

dseuling@avallain.com