Bite-sized Learning — the biggest education trend that is here to stay

Can you swallow an apple whole? “What a strange question!” you might say. Of course, you don’t swallow an apple whole. You take individual bites out of it, one at a time (=one by one) until the flesh of the apple is gone.

Look, we all know how to eat apples. That’s not what this article is about.

But not everyone knows how to learn effectively. This is where the principle of bite-sized learning comes in, and this is what this article will focus on.

Just like with the apple analogy, bite-sized learning involves breaking down (=separating) the learning process into a series of small steps.

Let’s say you have a long list of new expressions you want to learn. Instead of spending hours every day cramming (=stuff, fill) the entire list into your head and getting frustrated (=angry, upset) that you can not remember them all, you break the list down into chunks (=pieces) of 5–10 expressions and focus on one chunk every day for 5–10 minutes.

In other words, bite-sized learning allows you to learn more in less time. It’s all about learning smart, not hard.

Here is why bite-sized learning is effective

1. You are engaged

An IMT study discovered that the ideal time for an instructional video is around 6 minutes. This makes sense. The longer you focus, the less likely you are to understand and remember what you’re learning. That’s why it’s more effective to do 5 separate tasks that take you 10 minutes each than to do one long task that takes you 50 minutes.

With bite-sized learning, you only need to focus for a short period of time. Then you take a break and get back to learning when your focus is sharp again.

2. You practice consistently (=regularly)

Consistency is the key to success. If you practice every day, you are guaranteed to get better. The hard thing about learning consistently is figuring out how to make learning part of your life. Luckily, bite-sized learning takes care of that too. Because with bite-sized learning…(next paragraph, please)

3. You build a habit

They say it takes 21 days to build a habit. Now, imagine that you go to the gym with a friend every day at 7 pm for 21 days. How would you feel at the end of those 21 days if you had to stop? You would feel like there is something missing from your life. You’d feel like something isn’t right anymore. That’s the beautiful thing about habits. Once you form a habit, it becomes easy to keep it up (=keep it going). Bite-sized learning allows you to build habits that are easy to maintain and don’t require personal sacrifices on your end. When you build a habit of learning English daily, you eventually stop learning it, and you start living it. That’s the goal!

4. You develop soft skills

When you follow the bite-sized learning principle, you become a lifelong learner who is ready to learn anything and anywhere. Maybe you’ve read an interesting social media post or heard something from your colleague — as a bite-sized learner, you will recognize this as an opportunity to learn something new. And we all know that the ability to learn fast and effectively is one of the most important soft skills, both in professional and personal life.

How English For IT is using bite-sized learning

At English For IT, we believe in the benefits of bite-sized learning because we have been using it for years, both as educators and as lifelong learners. We live in an age where you can learn more from TikTok than from a full semester at university. And we love that!

That’s why our latest online course English For Tech 2.0 is built on bite-sized, interactive activities that teach you more in less time.

This is what it means for you as a learner:

1. The learning process is planned out for you

We tell you exactly what you should learn every day and how long it will take. All you need to do is follow the calendar on our brand-new e-learning platform. Having our own in-house learning platform is a dream we have had for so long, and it has finally come true! We can now take into account our students’ needs and respond to their requirements for productive learning much faster because we’re in control of the platform’s backend.

2. You actually remember what you’ve learned

Do you know this feeling when you spend hours learning something and then forget it? We hate it too. That’s why we’ve tried to minimize that in English For Tech 2.0 as much as possible. The words and grammar you learn are then recycled (=repeated) in later lessons so that you retain (=keep) new information in an intuitive way. Plus, there are revision quizzes to help you keep your knowledge sharp.

3. You learn smart, not hard

We don’t ever want you to feel bored by this course. That’s why all the video lessons are under 10 minutes and the lesson tasks can be completed in under 20 minutes. This way, you can stay focused longer. What’s more, you know that you get one step closer to achieving your learning goals every 5–20 minutes. But do not get us wrong, if you want to spend more time learning and digging deeper, feel free to do it (=please do it). We have added optional tasks and extra materials for eager learners. Do not worry, though, if you do not have this extra time, you will still make progress.

4. You have no excuses

That’s right. You no longer have the excuse of “not having time” for English. Even if you can not study for 30 minutes at a stretch (=in one continuous period), you can break these 30 minutes into smaller time intervals and still progress through the course.

In English For Tech 2.0, we make sure you have plenty of (=a lot of) exercises you can complete in under 5 minutes. Do you want to listen to a podcast about pronunciation? How about some quick speaking practice? Or a vocabulary revision quiz? All these activities will only take you 5 minutes, and you can do them wherever you are: at home, on a train, while walking your dog, etc.

Are you ready to try a new and better approach to learning English? If so, follow our lead and use the promo code BDWEEK50 to get our brand new English For Tech 2.0 Course with 50% OFF. Only for early birds!