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New study: Language coaching is a winner for teachers as well as students

December 18, 2024

For four years, Studieskolen's centre of excellence for language teaching, le:v:el, has been training teachers in language coaching – a method to increase students’ motivation for language learning.
We have just completed the first major impact assessment of this method in Danish upper secondary schools (gymnasier), and the results are overwhelmingly positive.

Since 2020, le:v:el has been training language coaches. Not only in Denmark, but also in Germany and Iceland, where this photo was taken.

A summary of four years of language coaching at upper secondary schools across the country

In the study, which will soon be published, we sent questionnaires to 185 teachers at upper secondary schools (gymnasier) throughout Denmark who, over the last four years, have taken a language coaching course at le:v:el. Forty responded to the questionnaire. We also conducted qualitative interviews with eight language teachers who use the method systematically, and we sent questionnaires to their students.


The conclusion: It works!

Language coaching is about giving the language learner – in this case, the student – greater motivation and enjoyment. Our study shows that the vast majority of students indeed gain this. Below, we dive into some of the most exciting findings from the investigation.


A big impact on teachers’ job satisfaction

One pleasant result is that the method has also had a significant impact on teachers' own motivation – even though that wasn’t the original goal.

Language coaching gives the student a better understanding of, and ownership over, their own learning, which in turn changes the teacher’s role. Teachers can involve students more in the lessons, and the teacher becomes more of a facilitator who helps the student find their inner motivation, rather than someone who alone bears full responsibility for the learning process. This relieves some of the pressure on many teachers.

As one teacher says:

”It’s much nicer, much more exciting to enter a learning environment where students are motivated because they must take responsibility themselves. I don’t have to invent all sorts of things and jump through hoops. I can pass it back to them during check-ins along the way, reminding them: What’s actually happening now? Where do you want to go, and can you sense your progress? And if not: What’s causing that? So it’s not me who’s the cause – and that gives me job satisfaction!”
-    Charlotte, Allerød gymnasium

In our survey, we asked teachers how much they agreed with the following statement: “With language coaching, I can help students notice what they themselves can do to practise the language outside of class.” 90,9% of all respondents answered “to a great extent” or “to a very great extent,” which clearly demonstrates the method’s effectiveness.


Strengthened teacher-student relationships

Another positive effect of language coaching is that it strengthens the teacher-student relationship. Since language coaching focuses on helping the student find their own inner motivation, as a teacher, you inevitably get to know your student better.

Instead of previous conversations about what a student does well or not so well, many teachers found that they were now discussing who the student is and what he or she likes.

In this way, teachers get closer to their students and get to know them on a completely different level.

Over 95% of respondents said that language coaching strengthened their relationship with their students. One teacher called it a “revelation” and an “eye-opener,” while another put it this way:

”You take on a different role as a teacher. You become safer to approach, and they reach out more, and you get many more questions of interest. (…) We are the ones who must assess them, which implies a power dynamic, and maybe part of that gets broken down or softened in a positive way.”
-    Berit, Skanderborg Gymnasium


Happier and more self-aware students

The students themselves become far more conscious of their own role in learning a language. A full 100% of the teachers who responded said that language coaching gets students to reflect on their own learning. Of these, 72.7% said “to a great extent” or “to a very great extent”.

One consequence of this increased awareness is that the focus partially shifts from the end result – the grade – to the process itself, namely learning the language. Everything becomes more manageable for the students, giving them more motivation to continue. Many teachers noted that their students simply became happier.

One student expressed it this way: “It makes it easier for me to learn a new language and set realistic goals. 

Another said: “I want to continue because I feel I get something out of it, and I can relax while I ‘train’ with the different exercises.


Theory put into practice

We had a theory that language coaching could also help students become more willing to do the “boring” tasks involved in learning a language. It takes effort to learn a language, and although language coaching can help you find fun, personally interesting activities – like watching YouTube videos in German about a topic you care about – that alone isn’t enough to become truly proficient in German

Our theory was that when a student can find their own “islands” of motivation (such as YouTube videos) and when they have a better understanding of the entire language learning process, they will also be more motivated to do the “boring” tasks, such as text analysis and grammar.

We can now see that the method has indeed had this effect in practice. As one teacher put it:

”I can clearly see a difference in the students’ motivation when they’ve had the chance to figure out what they actually think. And when they’ve had the chance to do something they were motivated to do, then as a teacher, you can add in the elements you want them to learn. It’s as if they’re more receptive after having done something that worked for them and was a bit fun, so they’re more open to what comes next.”

-    Janne, Horsens Gymnasium


Using the results going forward

The centre of excellence le:v:el will continue to train language coaches – not only in upper secondary schools, but also in primary schools and adult education, in Denmark as well as abroad. We will of course take the results of this study with us and use them to shape our future courses so that even more students and teachers can benefit from the method.

At le:v:el, we created the method on a strong theoretical foundation and based on many years of experience. This study shows that language coaching has largely had the predicted effect in practice. It also reveals positive effects in several other aspects that we couldn’t have foreseen – not least the teachers’ own job satisfaction.

As one of the teachers who took part in the survey said:

”The best part of my job – that’s language coaching.”
-    Birgit, Bjerringbro Gymnasium


The impact measurement is supported by funding from The Danish National Centre for Foreign Languages (Det Nationale Center for Fremmedsprog  NCFF).