The Washington University Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series Workshop

Luke Plonsky, Associate Prof. of Applied Linguistics, Northern Arizona University

 

Workshop: Tuesday, March 6th, 4:00pm, Women’s Building Formal Lounge

Nature and Nurture in the L2 Classroom:  What Can Language Teachers Do To Influence and Improve Individual Learner Differences?

With theoretical and empirical findings as a backdrop, this workshop will outline our current understanding of the role of IDs in L2 development. Working our way through a set of core IDs (e.g., anxiety, strategies, motivation), I will emphasize both (a) their importance with respect to explaining variability in L2 achievement/proficiency and (b) what practicing teachers can do—beyond L2 instruction—to improve language learners’ efforts in their classrooms. My hope is that language teachers and researchers who attend this workshop will walk away with a better understanding of their learners and of concrete ways to help them.

*The Washington University Foreign Language Learning Colloquium Speaker Series is sponsored by the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; the Department of Psychology; the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures; the Department of Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures; the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Department of Education, and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.