Is teaching Gen Z challenging? What is your experience like when teaching Gen Z? Gen Z students are well represented in both our undergraduate and graduate academic classes. They have an attitude, special needs, and specific expectations. They exhibit quite distinct characteristics from any language learners we educators have encountered (Maqbool et al., 2020). What is the future of language learning in the context of dealing with Gen Z’s needs in our classes? The presenters aim to outline the specific needs and expectations of Gen Z language learners versus those of their educators.
This session is divided into several sections: the main characteristics of our digital natives, Gen Z, as language learners in an American University setting, their mindset, challenges they face, their experiences with Academic Integrity, and their dependence on AI use. Focus is on their learning styles, passion, and learning preferences. The challenges these students face will be outlined to address their concerns and enable educators to tailor-make tasks to scaffold their learning and engage them (Hung & Nguyen, 2022). The presenters will also suggest practical teaching and assessment strategies and techniques. The overall purpose is to foster collaboration, peer learning, and community engagement side by side with language learning in our 21st century classrooms.
In this interactive session, the audience will engage in reflective discussions and collaboration, sharing experiences and suggesting best practices. They will leave the webinar having charted a way forward to empower and motivate Gen Z learners in this digital era.
References
Hung, B.P., Nguyen, L.T. (2022). Scaffolding Language Learning in the Online Classroom. In: Sharma, R., Sharma, D. (eds) New Trends and Applications in Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analytics. Intelligent Systems Reference Library, vol 221. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-99329-0_
Maqbool, S., Ismail, S. A. M. M., & Maqbool, S. (2020). Language learning strategies for Gen Z ESL learners as digital natives. Universal Journal of Educational Research, 8(8), 3439-
3448. DOI: 10.13189/ujer.2020.080818
Please click on the facilitators’ names in the session info to view their bios.
This session will be recorded and shared on the website and on our YouTube channel
