Foreign language education has traditionally been split between two very different educational contexts. A formal setting (public schools in the case of children, dedicated language schools in the case of adults) in which trained teaching professionals could offer direct instruction, and very informal situations of autodidact study, through self-help books (Teach Yourself, Assimil...), or with a language tutor, which was rarely a professional. In this second context, learners generally seldom received any methodological guidance.

In both cases, outcomes were rarely realized and language education is notoriously inefficient. In the past 10 years, however, thanks to the internet and other technologies, things have started to change for the better, and we can see clear signs of improvement.

In the case of the autodidact learner, the situation has seen dramatic changes:

• Access to resources has been tremendously improved through the internet. The learner now has easy access to resources targeted to native speakers of his target language, which would have been almost impossible in the past. He will also have a broad choice of learner-targeted resources and systems (duolingo, glossika...), whose proliferation is no doubt related to the reduced cost of production compared to traditional "brick and mortar" resource creation and publishing.
• Access to teachers is also greatly improved, bridging the gap between formal and informal settings. Skype, Zoom and other video-conferencing were the first to allow for teachers and learners to interact remotely outside of school. But the main issue that remained was the absence of an efficient way for teachers and potential students to find each other in the first place. Platforms like iTalki solved this problem and are now the go-to platform for any aspiring polyglot.
• Internet has also allowed students to have access to, and participate in the discourse on language learning methodology. Through the rise of the so-called "youtube polyglots" (Richard Simcott, Benny Lewis, Luca Lampariello...), new emphasis is given on the methodologies, and various experiments are being conducted and documented for all to see. Although not devoid of drama, this space is seeing healthy debates and discussions.
• Finally, internet has been central in the creation of a language learning community. The places where this community interacts are varied (youtube, forums, dedicated channels...), but have lead to the organizing of real-life events and conferences which have seen a strong growth in attendance and media exposure over the last 10 years.

As for the formal setting, whereas methodological innovations had happened in the past, these were usually spread through resources created by the publishing industry. Here again, internet has had a very positive impact by allowing teachers to communicate and exchange views, but also get exposed to new ideas. The recent (budding) spread of the CI (Comprehensible Input) teaching approach in american schools is almost entirely attributable to the power of the internet in spreading new ideas.

Links & References:

- Duolingo : https://www.duolingo.com/

- Glossika: https://ai.glossika.com/

- iTalki: https://www.italki.com/

- Richard Simcott: https://speakingfluently.com/

- Benny Lewis: https://www.fluentin3months.com/

- Luca Lampariello: https://www.lucalampariello.com/

- Polglot Conference: https://polyglotconference.com/

- Polyglot Gathering: https://www.polyglotgathering.com/2022/en/

- Links on CI:

Ramahlo Michelle (2019) "On starting to teach using CI" https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-classics-teaching/article/on-starting-to-teach-using-ci/A727010578CDFF22DE531F9030530ED3

Boulanger Grant "Teaching with CI" http://www.grantboulanger.com/teaching-with-c-i/