CI5622: Exploring Learner Language: Puzzles and Tools for the Classroom

The focus of this institute is on the growth and development of learners’ language, and how that growth may be enhanced by ongoing pedagogical innovation. The institute uses Exploratory Practice to promote a culture of instructor initiative in identifying and seeking to solve puzzles related to learner language development in the classroom.Participants begin with an introduction to Exploratory Practice as a framework for instructors to use in identifying and wrestling with their own puzzles about learners’ language and its development in their classrooms. Participants then work together to reflect on videos of learner language as it is produced by different kinds of learners. They review theories of second language acquisition, and apply their insights to their own classrooms by learning how to set up engaging puzzle-solving activities that stimulate growth in learner language. Finally, participants learn how to design pre- and post-course measures that demonstrate the impact of their innovations in instruction on the growth of specific features and dimensions of learner language in their own classrooms.

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