The Buckeye Language Education Resource (BuckLER) Center welcomes Dr. Florencia Henshaw!
Connecting Research and Practice in World Language Education
Location: Interfaith Prayer and Reflection Room, Room 3020-C, Ohio Union
Date: Wednesday, April 19, 2023
Time: 4:00-5:30 pm
Event Speaker: Dr. Florencia Henshaw
In her talk, Dr. Henshaw will explore the challenges and opportunities associated with the connection between what we know from research and what we do in practice. The presenter will start by underscoring the importance of understanding the “why” behind the “what and how,” not only because doing so may improve practice, but also because competence increases confidence in educators (when making decisions, participating in professional communities, consuming information, etc.). Then, she will discuss what factors have been shown to limit access to research, such as time constraints, discourse differences, and perceived irrelevance to their own context. The talk will conclude with suggestions of possible steps to take to overcome those barriers and empower language educators in connecting the dots and collecting clues from research findings in a way that goes beyond summaries or including pedagogical implications in journal articles.
Dr. Florencia Henshaw is Director of Advanced Spanish at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In her work, she is passionate about helping students develop communicative ability in the target language and teachers make the connection between what we know and what we do. She is creator and host of the YouTube channel / podcast Unpacking Language Pedagogy, as well as the co-author of the book Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory goes to the Classroom, both of which aim to help educators visualize how to put principles into action.
Dr. Henshaw’s talk is co-sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Center for Languages, Literatures, and Cultures.