World Language Classroom

Guiding Principles of Second Language Acquisition

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Episode notes

#59
In this episode we look at the guiding principles and fundamentals of language acquisition and how they should influence our teaching.  This is the second episode dedicated to the book Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom by Florencia Henshaw and Maris Hawkins.  They are very effective at laying out the fundamentals of SLA, and it is essential that we understand these foundations before taking on topics such as goals, assessment, input and output, which will be the focus of the next 2 episodes. 

Topics in the episode:

  • what it means to acquire language
  • when and how acquisition happens
  • what communication is and is not
  • the importance of communication in acquiring language  
  • the teacher's role (hint: it's not to explain grammar)
  • Making the discussion interactive on Twitter with Joshua (@wlcalssoom), Florencia Henshaw (@Prof_F_Henshaw) and Maris Hawkins (@Marishawkins).

Get your own copy of Common Ground.  Hackett Publishing is generously offering a 25% discount when you use the code WLC2022.

**The 25% off discount code can be used for any book through the end of December, 2022.  Hackett publishes several intermediate language-learning textbooks in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Latin, and Classical Greek. New releases include Cinema for French Conversation, Cinema for Spanish Conversation, and Les Français.

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