“Space learning over time.”
Institute of Education Sciences, Organizing Instruction and Study to Improve Student Learning (2007), Recommendation 1. This is a general learning recommendation, not a testimonial or an endorsement of ALI.
Read the IES practice guide ↗
American Language Institute
What supports effective English learning?
Practice that returns over time. Feedback you can act on. Opportunities to use language. Here is the evidence behind the principles, and how we apply them.
Return to language across sessions.
Kim and Webb’s 2022 meta-analysis supports spaced practice in second-language learning. Effects depend on the learning target, practice design and retention interval.
ALI’s design: prepare, use the language with the cohort, and revisit it in later practice.
Use feedback to guide another attempt.
Li’s 2010 meta-analysis found a positive overall effect of corrective feedback in second-language acquisition, with differences across study settings and treatments.
ALI’s design: coaches help learners focus on a useful correction and try again.
Keep the evidence and the product distinct.
These sources support learning principles. They do not prove that ALI, a particular AI feature or a chosen cohort size produces a specific result. The cohort and coaching model is ALI’s operating design. AI feedback requires oversight and can be wrong.
See how the pieces fit together.
Explore the learning cycle.