Conversations about Language Teaching

Send us Fan Mail Episode 29 Show Notes - Rethinking Authenticity  Hasegawa, A. (2018). Understanding task‐in‐process through the lens of laughter: Activity designs, instructional materials, learner orientations, and interpersonal relationships. The Modern Language Journal , 102 (1), 142-161. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12448 Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo S...

Send us Fan Mail This episode is in Mandarin Chinese. Reed & Diane talk about their experiences as non-native learners, users, and teachers of Mandarin Chinese.  Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo Support the show Conversations about Language Teaching Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD "Conversations about Language Teaching" is a podcast of...

Send us Fan Mail No show notes this time!  Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo Support the show Conversations about Language Teaching Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD "Conversations about Language Teaching" is a podcast of unscripted discussions of language teaching, drawing on both research and classroom & online language teaching. If you...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 26: Children’s Books & Reading for Vocabulary Growth  Show Notes The Mandarin Companion blog has concise & helpful information about Extensive reading (ER) and 98% known language. This post also describes why children’s books are not necessarily suitable for second language learners:  https://mandarincompanion.com/7-mistakes-about-extensive-reading/   Intensive rea...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 25: There Is No Best Method–Why? Discussing Prabhu (1990) Show Notes We discussed this article:  Prabhu, N. S. (1990). There is no best method—Why?. TESOL Quarterly , 24 (2), 161-176. https://doi.org/10.2307/3586897 It is freely available online at the link above. Diane missed the number of times it has been cited – “only” 1666 citations as of Feb. 28, 2025. That is still...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 24 - Pronunciation development Reed’s grad school classmate's study: https://www.hawaii.edu/sls/phd-student-wenyi-ling-2018-research-award/   The full dissertation: Ling, W. (2021). The Perception, Processing and Learning of Mandarin Lexical Tone by Second Language Speakers. University of Hawai'i at Manoa. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bit...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 23: AI Chatbots  Show Notes Dr. Rachel Mamiya Hernandez-relevant link about using AI chatbots for language learning: https://clt.manoa.hawaii.edu/blog/event/ai-chatbots-2/ Billie Eilish AI interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0c94ghBS4A Magic School AI tool, where Reed & Diane have both prompted chatbots to work with Chinese language learners: https://www.magics...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 22 Show Notes Michael Long quote is on pp. 6-7 of the following, available freely online at the link:  Long, M. H. (2016). In defense of tasks and TBLT: Nonissues and real issues. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics , 36 , 5-33. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ED5590DB727AE82E0A98AC05264B83E1/S0267190515000057a.pdf/div-class-title-i...

Send us Fan Mail Show Notes:  Video examples of comprehension-based communicative language teaching: Hawai`i Association of Language Teacher (HALT) conference presentation recording:  Overview of CCLT (descriptive rather than a demo): https://youtu.be/h0Xd6zVSlxU?si=dIdenoWArOmYlW-q   Teachers from Hawai`i developed a website including descriptions of different teaching strategies, including video...

Send us Fan Mail Conversations about Language Teaching  Episode 20: The Silent Period  Show Notes Search results on Google Scholar for “silent period second language acquisition”  https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C15&q=silent+period+second+language+acquisition&oq=%22silent+period%22+ Diane quoted from this document:  Krashen, S. (1981). Second language acquisition. Se...

Send us Fan Mail Conversations about Language Teaching Episode 19: Listening comprehension as a goal Show Notes We welcome questions and topics to address! We're aiming for episode 21 to be responding to questions. Write to us at conversationsaboutlanguage@gmail.com. Lichtman, K. (2019). Research on TPR Storytelling (TPRS). Fluency through TPR storytelling , 299-323. https://www.researchgate....

Send us Fan Mail Episode 18: Instructional Activities Seedhouse, P. (2010). Locusts, snowflakes and recasts: complexity theory and spoken interaction. Classroom Discourse , 1 (1), 4–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/19463011003750624   Neubauer, D. (2022). Chinese Language Instruction with Novice Learners: Target Language Topic Development, Engagement, and Comprehension in Online and Hybrid Classrooms....

Send us Fan Mail Episode 17 Show notes Lichtman, K., & VanPatten, B. (2021). Was Krashen right? Forty years later. Foreign Language Annals , 54 (2), 283-305. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/flan.12552     Note: ACTFL members have access to that full article through your membership after logging in. There are also several response articles, and a final response from Lichtman &am...

Send us Fan Mail Season 3 Episode 16: Using Authentic Texts Show Notes:  Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo Support the show Conversations about Language Teaching Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD "Conversations about Language Teaching" is a podcast of unscripted discussions of language teaching, drawing on both research and classroom & onl...

Send us Fan Mail Season 2 Episode 15: Language Learner Strategies Show Notes The chapter is chapter 34 in this book: Celce-Murcia, M., Brinton, D., & Snow, M. A., Eds. (2014). Teaching English as a Second Or Foreign Language. National Geographic Learning. 4th edition. A free PDF of the 3rd edition (the 2001 edition) is available free here . You can browse parts of the most recent edition (the...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 14 Being a New Teacher at a School Show Notes Ngan-Ha Ta https://www.linkedin.com/in/nganhata   GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design) https://begladtraining.com/about   Our trainer in GLAD pedagogy was Luis Pelayo Zepeda. Diane’s PowerPoint with quotes from research and about language is shared freely (and you may use it with students and/or others, crediting your sour...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 13: Culture and Language Teaching Show Notes Claire Kramsch: https://german.berkeley.edu/people/claire-kramsch/   A book chapter she co-authored, including interculturality and “third space”:  Kramsch, C., & Uryu, M. (2020). Intercultural contact, hybridity, and third space. In The Routledge handbook of language and intercultural communication (pp. 204-218). Routledge....

Send us Fan Mail Show Notes: Things mentioned in the podcast with links when available: SLAyyy podcast (Ben Fisher-Rodriguez, Bill Langley, and Bryan Smith) https://slayyy.buzzsprout.com/ VanPatten, B. (2017). While We're on the Topic: BVP on Language, Acquisition, and Classroom Practice . ACTFL. VanPatten, B. (2019). The Nature of Language: A Short Guide to What's in Our Heads. ACTFL. V...

Send us Fan Mail Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo Support the show Conversations about Language Teaching Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD "Conversations about Language Teaching" is a podcast of unscripted discussions of language teaching, drawing on both research and classroom & online language teaching. If you like thinking deeply about...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 10: Instructional Language Play  No Show Notes this episode! Send us a message if you have a question about anything we referred to in the episode. Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo Support the show Conversations about Language Teaching Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD "Conversations about Language Teaching" is a podc...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 9: Teacher training Show Notes Ngan Ta, PhD  Intro & outro music selected from "23 Light Years" by CavalloPazzo Support the show Conversations about Language Teaching Diane Neubauer, PhD & Reed Riggs, PhD "Conversations about Language Teaching" is a podcast of unscripted discussions of language teaching, drawing on both research and classroom & online...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 8: Reducing workload by establishing classroom routines Show notes: Some of the opening of class routines mentioned:  Free Writes / Fluency Writing Map Talk  How Are You? / Social-emotional check-ins Calendar Talk Diane's classroom tour videos showing word posters are in this YouTube playlist . Diane's blog posts about reducing lesson preparation time when teachi...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 7: Carefully observing language classroom interaction through Conversation Analysis Show notes: Harvey Sacks and Emmanuel Schlegoff        Their 1973 study, which more or less became a standard for Conversation Analysis as a research approach and methodology:   Schegloff, E. A., & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/sem...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 6: Planning: "Communication for language" versus "language for communication" Show Notes:   Reed mentioned a research study we did related to language play at the Agen Workshop. That is here: Neubauer, D., & Riggs, R. (2024). Chapter 5 Pedagogical language play in a beginning L2 Chinese classroom. In L. Darren & T. Elaine (Eds.), Heteroglossia a...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 5 of Conversations about Language Teaching: What can language teachers get from research?  Show Notes: Video (8m 31s) by Mango Languages, What is Second Language Acquisition (SLA)? | Science Behind Language Learning https://youtu.be/WZZUCykPQWE Diane mentioned this article as an example of how a research article is structured, and what the early sections of the article aim...