Beyond Exposure: The Importance of Comprehensible and Meaningful Input in Language Acquisition with Dr. Florencia Henshaw (Part 1)

Are you ready for an AMAZING episode? In this first part of a two-part episode, I had the honor to talk to Dr. Florencia Henshaw who shared her insights not only about the role of input for language acquisition but also how our students need to interact with that input and practical strategies for all teachers to compel students to not only listen but make form-meaning connections with the input. You will be blown away by everything Dr. Henshaw had to share.

In our discussion, I also shared the frustration I had when someone told me to hit a 90% use of target language in my classroom. That was not happening in my class at that time! 

Input for Language Acquisition

To start, I asked Dr. Florencia to talk a little about what exactly input is in regards for language acquisition. She explained that it has to be language that is comprehensible. It also has to carry meaning. Frequency is also important, especially when it is not being stored in long-term memory.

Results Don’t Come Quickly

Next, I mentioned that sometimes as teachers we expect our students to have already acquired some language after just a short amount of time. In reality, our students are only in our classes learning the target language for a few days a week and only for an hour or two. Dr. Florencia talked about the frustration and the outside pressure that teachers get to ensure language acquisition is occurring. Listen here for our full conversation.

In Dr. Florencia’s workshops, she always says that teaching rules or focusing on grammar is not a substitute for meaningful engagement with the language. There’s no substitute for meaningful, purposeful engagement!

“Language Acquisition is Much More than Exposure” – Dr. Florencia

Dr. Florencia told me that it was important for her to make this distinction because exposure to some could mean a teacher instructor who just uses the target language, and feels like well, at least students are exposed to it. However, exposure doesn’t mean much if the students are not understanding what they are being exposed to. Then, she also shared her explanation on why she doesn’t like unmodified resources. Listen to episode 40 as she explains why and also her caution on activities that look like input, but really are not. 

Episode 40

Whether you are a grammar lover or not, Dr. Florencia Henshaw’s views regarding how we acquire “grammar” will serve you to make important decisions for your classes and your learners. And, if you are interested in adding more tools to your belt regarding this aspect of our classes, make sure to listen to the second part of this episode where Dr. Henshows explores the concept of structured input activities and processing instruction.

Ready to listen to part 1? Click play above and happy listening.

Dr. Florencia Henshaw

Dr. 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 as passionate about helping students develop communicative ability in the target language as she is about helping teachers make the connection between what we know and what we do. To that end, she launched a YouTube channel called “Unpacking Language Pedagogy,” 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, also aims to help educators visualize how to put principles into action.