I have written a lot in my blog and in my book on teaching English Language Learners on how I use inductive learning in the classroom. Teaching “inductively” generally means providing students with a number of examples from which they can create a pattern and form a concept or rule. Teaching “deductively” is first providing the rule or concept and then having students practice applying it.

This two-and-one-half minute video below explains that this is how Google Translate learns, too. It’s definitely worth watching.

By the way, Google Translate is on The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners list.