By: Diane Ceo-DiFrancesco, Ph.D.
What does research in second language acquisition actually look like in a classroom-based learning environment? How do we move from theory to meaningful communication?
The answers to these questions were what my co-authors and I wanted to share through Experiencias. No author begins a language materials project without significant reasons for doing so, since it requires substantial dedication, passion, and time. Equipped with a solid purpose and a great deal of classroom experience, research, and educational preparation, we developed clear objectives for our project. We also surveyed students to find out what their ideal language learning program would look like.
The result is Experiencias: a robust, intentionally designed language program based on key principles of second language pedagogical research and practical application of teaching strategies that foster authentic language use and interaction. In this blog post I’ll share three of these principles for promoting purposeful communication, meaningful interaction, and student-centered learning environments through a practical framework.
Support language acquisition through rich, comprehensible input
For some time now, world language educators have known—based on extensive research—that we can support acquisition by providing students with rich, comprehensible input (Krashen, 1982). Input drives acquisition, and without it, there is no language acquisition (Barcroft & Wong, 2013). We can apply specific strategies to make target language input comprehensible for our students. Some of these strategies include the use of:
- Gestures: These can provide a visual, non-verbal support for learners that can assist in lowering anxiety.
- Visuals: Drawings and photos, as well as other visuals, can support comprehension of new vocabulary and key ideas.
- Cognates: In both written and oral input, cognates can support comprehension if we teach students to identify them.
- Graphic organizers and infographics: These provide visual representations that support comprehension of both concrete and abstract concepts.
- Modeling: Acting out the significance of concrete vocabulary or instructions for a task can be helpful to students as they see and hear the instructor, connecting the action to the linguistic representation.
We can ask yes/no or either/or questions to check student comprehension. Instructors can also leverage topics of learning modules/chapters to provide “teacher talk” (Ceo-DiFrancesco, 2013) in their interactions with their students. This teacher talk can include descriptions related to teachers’ own lives that they feel comfortable sharing, such as daily routines, favorite activities and hobbies, travels, weekly schedule, etc. The Experiencias program materials incorporate a variety of intentionally selected video and audio text types to support learners’ language acquisition such as how-to videos, podcasts, infographics, interviews with real people, and inspiring stories of real people making a difference in the world today.
Students are guided through a series of tasks and activities focusing on meaningful communication that incorporate interpretative, interpersonal, and presentation modes of communication. Experiencias also incorporates metacognitive strategies—strategies that facilitate the planning, monitoring, and evaluating of learning—leading to the development of self-regulated, autonomous students.
Build student-centered learning communities
Effective instructors build student-centered learning environments, which can reduce language learning anxiety (Horwitz et al., 1986). In the world language classroom, we instructors typically get to know our students well due to the themes and topics of our courses. We learn about students’ daily activities, hobbies, and interests, as well as their challenges and struggles. Students have shared that they look forward to coming to language classes that foster community and relationship-building strategies. Instructors can positively impact the student learning experience by:
- Establishing a clear communication plan
- Administering an initial questionnaire to learn students’ interests, and challenges, as well as successful strategies that support their learning
- Placing importance on learning each other’s names (students’ and instructor’s)
- Utilizing an audio app to learn correct pronunciation of students’ names
- Sharing pronouns
- Incorporating ice-breakers
- Sharing initial videos to introduce themselves (students and instructor)
- Using images, examples, and role models representing a wide variety of people
- Supporting the metacognitive process
- Integrating a variety of engaging interactive activities
- Developing autonomous learners
- Incorporating goal-setting and reflection
Design real-life, interactive, communicative tasks that prioritize meaning over form
Instructional practice should focus on the implementation of real communication tasks with authentic purposes. Henshaw and Hawkins (2022) define communication as “… the purposeful interpretation and/or expression of meaning” (p. 6).
Backward design makes the learning path clear and concise. The journey is well defined when we share with students the skills, attitudes, and concepts that they are expected to apply to real classroom interaction. In Experiencias, we do this by identifying the desired outcome for students, linking the outcome to assessment, and then scaffolding all tasks to support students in reaching the learning outcomes for each learning module or chapter.
We incorporate real-life, career readiness, and intercultural competency developmental tasks to support student engagement and interaction. We designed program tasks that prioritize meaning over form so that communication is the real goal, not correct grammar forms. Utilizing a reduced grammatical scope and sequence, the focus is on manageable, purposeful, and high-frequency grammar points tied to realistic goals that align with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (ACTFL, 2024).
An invitation to transform teaching and learning with Experiencias
Let’s connect research and practice so that our courses are less about performing language and more about acquiring it through real, meaningful human interaction. Through Experiencias, we can transform the ways we envision world language teaching and learning experiences.
Works Cited
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (2024). ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines.
Barcroft, J., & Wong, W. (2013). Input, input processing and focus on form. In J. Herschensohn & M. Young-Scholten (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition (pp. 627–647). Cambridge University Press.
Ceo-DiFrancesco, D. (2013). Use of the target language in today’s world language classrooms. In S. Dhonau (Ed.), Multitasks, multiskills, multiconnections (pp. 1–19). Report of the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Henshaw, F. G., & Hawkins, M. D. (2022). Common ground: Second language acquisition theory goes to the classroom. Hackett Publishing Company.
Horwitz, E. K., Horwitz, M. B. & Cope, J. (1986). Foreign language classroom anxiety. The Modern Language Journal, 70(2), 125–132.
Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford: Pergamon Press.
Diane Ceo-DiFrancesco, Ph.D.
Chair, Department of Classics and Modern Languages; Professor of Spanish and Teacher Education; and Coordinator of Spanish Major and Minor Program
Xavier University
Diane Ceo-DiFrancesco serves as Chair of the Department of Classics and Modern Languages and Coordinator of the Spanish Major and Minor Program. She is a Professor of Spanish and Teacher Education at Xavier University and teaches courses in Spanish language, linguistics and culture, and World Language Pedagogy. She has previously served Xavier University as Faculty Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and as Faculty Director of the Center for Community-Engaged Learning. Diane regularly incorporates community-engaged learning, virtual exchange and collaborative online international learning (COIL) into the courses that she teaches. An international presenter and scholar, her research interests include virtual exchange, second language acquisition and social justice, global citizenship, and community-engaged learning.
