Eric Richards Instructional Consulting, LLC

Continuing our series on “SLA-Speak”, we’ll now look at “Acquisition vs. Learning”. Note: This is the second post in the series. Acquisition and Learning are two distinct processes involved in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), as proposed by linguist Stephen Krashen. Let’s take a closer look at the differences between these two terms: Acquisition: Learning: Key…

As a language educator, I find myself talking to others about SLA (Second Language Acquisition). I also find that I use terms, definitions, and acronyms that are unfamiliar to the other person, or perhaps the other person has a different idea what the term means. So, I thought it would be a good time to…

Dr. Pat Brown and I continue to collaborate on ideas to how to improve education and student learning. I always enjoy working with Pat, because we bring together overlaps from the science and world language classrooms. We always look at how we can use students’ ideas about language, science, discourse, and communication to develop conceptual…

Since I was young, I was always fascinated by people that could fluently speak multiple languages. I constantly asked myself, “How can they do that?” Then I thought, “That person must be super smart! I wish I were that smart.” As I grew, I continued to find myself interested in languages. I was always interested…

I recently came across a couple of articles that deal with language and the brain. I found them quite interesting and thought I would share. They deal with how our L1 (first language / mother tongue) influences our brain, its formation, and how we process different languages. Scientist are using the information to better help…