Conversations about Language Teaching

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

Send us Fan Mail

Episode 33: Introducing Vocabulary Show Notes 

Diane mentioned the book Vocabulary Myths by Keith Folse. Here is the publisher's site about it: https://press.umich.edu/Books/V/Vocabulary-Myths2

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

Send us Fan Mail

Episode 32 Show notes - Focus on Form 

Michael Long’s thinking about “focus on meaning,” “focus on form,’ and “focus on forms” in language teaching, for example: 

Long, M. (2008). Focus on form in task-based language teaching. In Language policy and pedagogy (pp. 179-192). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/82ddd5f2-57ca-4d9e-91ed-5b65b5483395/content 

Diane mentioned Patsy Lightbown related to developmental readiness. Nina Spada is the first author on a piece related to that topic:

Spada, N., & Lightbown, P. M. (1999). Instruction, first language influence, and developmental readiness in second language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 83(1), 1-22.  https://doi.org/10.1111/0026-7902.00002 

PACE as a sort of focus on form was developed by Adair-Hauck & Donato. For example:

Adair-Hauck, B., & Donato, R. (2002). The PACE model: A story-based approach to meaning and form for standards-based language learning. The French Review, 265-276. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3132708.pdf?casa_token=vLRGTuL4kYoAAAAA:nt-vKHUZm9rkrRCqYUBh_VNlRcAu1hD2g1Q0RM60Y5s64Hf3fR01q1qvOM7TM_Kj0ZvlDnavNZo46XcVVy1ZoqZy81PEoFWJH4wgEYZYSoDOR2ehCQ 

There are many other sources about PACE, including other podcasts or blog posts from language teachers who have used the approach, such as Madame Shepard’s post here: https://madameshepard.com/?p=1761  Mde. Shepard notes the meaning of the abbreviation in her post.

Pop up grammar & pop ups: Diane presented with Bill Langley (from the SLAYYY! Podcast) on focus on form using pop-ups, sharing the presentation slides link with Bill's permission: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1199IPm-CjHnM7jN1rh6dETFbyd1LGqhG0Dk7jq08c3U/edit?usp=sharing

Bill VanPatten on processing instruction, for example: 

VanPatten, B. (2002). Processing instruction: An update. Language Learning, 52(4), 755-803.  https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9922.00203 

Michael Sharwood-Smith input flood: Information about this construct and related ideas about input enhancement and noticing form in the midst of relatively meaning-focused instruction: 

Benati, A. (2016). Input manipulation, enhancement and processing: Theoretical views and empirical research. Studies in second language learning and teaching, 6(1), 65-88.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1134494.pdf 

Story Listening by Dr. Beniko Mason and Comprehension-Aiding Supplementation

Dr. Mason’s website links to research, video examples, and other information: https://www.beniko-mason.net/ 

ALG: Automatic Language Growth https://algworld.com/ 

S. Pit Corder on errors in learners’ production as a way to understand language development:  Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learner's errors. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED019903.pdf 

Grammar as a concept: ACTFL information

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

Send us Fan Mail

Show Notes: Episode 31 (season 4) show notes: Child language development & implications for teachers

Conversations about Language Teaching Episode 7 was about Conversation Analysis: 

YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zny0LLUh3TM

Audio-only podcast episode https://www.buzzsprout.com/admin/2325378/episodes/15229325-episode-7-learning-about-language-classroom-interaction-through-conversation-analysis 

Reed mentioned this presentation by Lourdes Ortega: 

Ortega, L. (2017). The bi/multilingual turn in SLA: How far have we (not) come, and why. In 36th Second Language Research Forum, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.

Reed referenced Ninio’s research on child syntax (ex, word order), such as the following: 

Ninio, A. (2014). Learning a generative syntax from transparent syntactic atoms in the linguistic input. Journal of Child Language, 41(6), 1249-1275. https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4230B7158CA10B4F20454430F3A9B6BE/S0305000913000470a.pdf/learning-a-generative-syntax-from-transparent-syntactic-atoms-in-the-linguistic-input.pdf

Ninio, A. (2011). Syntactic development, its input and output. Oxford University Press. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=tJ2k_KeoRhcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR9&dq=Ninio+child+syntax&ots=ycNoteZRsf&sig=EvZ0KYIbqXytHtPE6-P41jFUJE0#v=onepage&q=Ninio%20child%20syntax&f=false 

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

Send us Fan Mail

Episode 30 Show Notes -- Purposes for Picture Talk 

Link to Cheng & Tsui webinar (mentioned by Diane as included Picture Talk): https://youtu.be/HinXS0n762g 

eBook (includes both ‘levels’ of Picture Talk Diane described) https://cheng-tsui.publishercart.com/product/comprehension-based-chinese-ebook/ 

Hawaii Department of Education https://learningdesign.hawaiipublicschools.org/standards-based-content/world-languages 

Scroll down to find Session 2 from 2023 (with Diane Neubauer, trainer): Designing Units and Lessons. There is a link to unit and lesson examples there – the elementary example is a unit based around an animal, like Diane talked about pandas.

Picture Talk episode of Growing with Proficiency (Claudia Elliott’s podcast; no guest, Diane misremembered in the recording)  Episode 143: Picture Talk Reimagined – 5 Ways to Make It Sustainable and Student-Led https://growingwithproficiencythepodcast.buzzsprout.com/2051875/episodes/16986398-episode-143-picture-talk-reimagined-5-ways-to-make-it-sustainable-and-student-led 

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

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

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

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 unscripted discussions of language teaching, drawing on both research and classroom & online language teaching. If you like thinking deeply about issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

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 like thinking deeply about issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

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 reading & extensive reading compared in a concise post by Mandarin Companion: https://mandarincompanion.com/reading-pain-or-reading-gain-reading-at-the-right-level/

The podcast “You Can Learn Chinese” also has several episodes related to extensive reading, intensive reading, and other information about learning (particularly) Chinese with a lot of relevance to learning any language: https://mandarincompanion.com/you-can-learn-chinese-podcast/ 

Narrow reading: 

Krashen, S. (2004). The case for narrow reading [J]. Language Magazine, 3(5), 17-19. https://sdkrashen.com/content/articles/narrow.pdf 

Renandya, W. A., Krashen, S., & Jacobs, G. M. (2018). The potential of series books: How narrow reading leads to advanced L2 proficiency. LEARN Journal: Language Education and Acquisition Research Network, 11(2), 148-154. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1225871.pdf 

English language TV shows used for language learning – some examples:

10 US or UK TV shows and ideas for learning English from them: https://www.bsceducation.com/blog/best-tv-shows-for-learning-english/ 

The Office (US version of the show) https://diziyleogren.com/en/tv-series/the-office – However, Reed & Diane think it’s more important to understand meaning in context than to memorize the long lists of vocabulary provided. The definitions are sometimes also full of specialized vocabulary. Ex: Season 1, ep. 1 lists “berry” as a fleshy fruit from one ovary… that is a very technical definition for a botany student rather than daily life! 

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new

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 quite a lot in the field of applied linguistics/language teaching and learning. 

Needs analysis: 

Ch. 3 of this book is about needs analysis in language course design: 

Macalister, J., & Nation, I. P. (2019). Language curriculum design. Routledge. 

Information about the 2019 (2nd) edition is here: 

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429203763/language-curriculum-design-john-macalister-nation

The first edition of the book (2010 edition) is available freely online here: https://shorturl.at/mX40e 

Prabhu (1990) cites Brumfit, 1984, which appears to be his PhD thesis revised for book publication: 

Brumfit, C. (1984). Communicative methodology in language teaching: The roles of fluency and accuracy. 

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 issues of classroom language teaching and how those relate to research and theory, this podcast might be for you.

Reed & Diane, the hosts, base our knowledge of language teaching on research we've read & done, theoretical views of language acquisition, our experiences as language teachers and learners, and our observations of language teaching in the US and elsewhere. We like to help build bridges among teachers and researchers and view ourselves as part of both communities. We collaborate on projects & like talking about language teaching & learning, and decided to have some of those conversations in a podcast format. Here it is!

More about Diane: https://sites.google.com/view/dianen/home
More about Reed: http://www.reedriggs.com

Watch on YouTube where episodes are captioned:
https://www.youtube.com/@ConversationsaboutLanguage

We welcome support for the podcasting costs. See "Support" here: https://conversationsaboutlanguage.buzzsprout.com/2325378/supporters/new