Language Resource Center Speaker Series - Florencia Henshaw

"Guiding SLA Principles and Assessment"
Florencia Henshaw
Director of Advanced Spanish, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign  

The goal of this interactive session is to help language educators understand how they can develop materials and implement classroom strategies that are informed by core principles of proficiency-based instruction, and doing so will help their students develop communicative ability in the target language. First, we will focus on setting goals informed by the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, and we will review some fundamental aspects of second language acquisition, particularly as they pertain to proficiency-oriented instruction. Then, participants will evaluate to what extent specific activities help to maximize proficiency development by dissecting their merits and shortcomings.

Bio: Florencia Henshaw has a Ph.D. in second language acquisition and teacher education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she is now the Director of Advanced Spanish. She is an award-winning educator who has published and presented nationally and internationally on technology integration and research-based pedagogical practices. Dr. Henshaw is also the host of Unpacking Language Pedagogy (available as a podcast and YouTube channel), where she summarizes and discusses research articles, activities, terms, and various topics related to language teaching. Her co-authored book, Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory goes to the Classroom, aims to help educators visualize how to put principles into action. 

This event is part of the Spring 2023 LRC Learning Community Common Ground: Moving SLA Theory into Practice, organized by the Central New York Humanities Corridor Working Group on Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC). Sponsored by the Central New York Humanities Corridor from an award by the Mellon Foundation.

The event will be held in person in G25 Stimson and will also be streamed live over Zoom.

Registration is required. The event is free and open to the public. Campus visitors and members of the public must adhere to Cornell's public health requirements for events.