Listening is a key component to learning a new language and when you are learning by yourself in your home country (especially during a quarantine) it can be challenging to find authentic sources of input. If you want to learn more about input and why it’s an important part of language learning, see my previous post here. Thanks to Netflix, we have easy access to media produced in other countries which means there is both audio and subtitles available in the language it was made in!

It’s normal to feel some anxiety around the idea of starting out with a new group of students in a virtual classroom. Whether you’re teaching a synchronous, asynchronous or hybrid class this Fall, it’s important to set the tone and create a positive learning environment even if that environment is completely online. Many of our practices that encourage success and empathy in the classroom can be slightly tweaked or adjusted to have the same effect in the virtual classroom.

In the context of teaching a second language, input refers to what a learner hears and processes in the target language. The importance of input in the language classroom and as an important part of language acquisition was developed and popularized by a linguist called Stephen Krashen. Krashen’s input hypothesis is a key part of a theory of second language acquisition that also includes five other hypotheses. According to Krashen, input is a necessary part of second language acquisition, but only if used correctly.