From early in my career, I have been passionate about engaging with second language acquisition (SLA) research, sharing findings, and translating those findings into instructional strategies. As an undergraduate student, my classmates and I learned about great SLA researchers like Stephen Krashen, Bill VanPatten, and Patsy Lightbown, among numerous others. For our final, we compiled a list of all the researchers we studied, the year they published seminal works, and a brief description of those works. I carried that list of researchers with me throughout my student teaching experience and the early years of my career.
As a young teacher, I felt that to gain the respect of my students, colleagues, administrators, and other stakeholders, I needed to be able to defend my pedagogical decisions. I would confidently pull out my list of researchers and cite the research, only to be met with uninterested, yet polite, nodding. Oftentimes, it turned out that those with whom I was sharing research findings had preconceived notions of what language learning was supposed to look like: students filling out verb charts, or filling in a blank with the correct conjugation, and memorizing skits where, for example, one student plays a server, and the other plays a guest that has some sort of dietary restriction.
The problem with those assumptions of language teaching, as I have found through my continued research, is that grammar drills do not require comprehension; that is, when a student is given a verb and a subject, they do not need to understand what the verb means to conjugate it correctly. Furthermore, activities like memorizing skits might appear to be communicative, but students can rely on non-linguistic cues to know when it’s their turn to say their line. However, try as I might, I was not making a compelling case for implementing research-informed instruction. It seemed that my lack of successful communication of research wasn’t due to the research being uninformative or invalid; it was too complex to explain briefly.
If I wanted to expand my knowledge of SLA research and share it, I needed to understand the research better. That desire led me to a master’s in language teaching and a doctorate in second language learning. At the beginning of my doctoral studies, it was suggested that I meet with Dr. Joe Malin from Miami University to discuss the idea of “knowledge brokerage.” This new-to-me field of study, which can support exploration of the relationship between research and instructional practices, was the missing piece I needed to improve how I disseminate research findings and share teaching practices informed by those findings.
The idea of being a knowledge broker enamored me. As a doctoral student and a full-time teacher, I found myself traversing the realms of research and practice, and I was looking for a space to share what I learn as a doctoral student with the world language teaching community.
SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone
My desire to share, discuss, and synthesize research with language teachers led me to ask two great friends, Bryan Smith (he/they) and Ben Fisher-Rodriguez (he/him), to start a podcast, and thus, SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone, was born.
Our goal is to share research in a way that is accessible, relevant, and actionable. We had noticed in online forums that world language teachers have a desire to read SLA research, but have trouble accessing the studies, either because there is a paywall to access research, the research is filled with jargon, or they have limited experience reading research. Additionally, the sheer quantity of available literature makes searching for relevant studies time-consuming, which may deter teachers with limited time. Our podcast aims to reduce these barriers to access. We share research on topics relevant to teachers because we ourselves are teachers, and when we find research that helps us, we want to share it with others. Finally, and perhaps most important for teachers, we aim to give concrete examples of instructional practices that introduce actionable new strategies or validate common practices by supporting them with research.
To reach our goal of making SLA research accessible, relevant, and actionable, we start planning for an episode by finding a study to use as an anchor for the episode. Each episode is divided into three sections: Gaslight, Gatekeep, and Girlboss. These tongue-in-cheek section titles refer to current pop culture trends and provide a replicable format to translate research into teacher-friendly “edutainment.”
- Gaslight: In this first section, we share misconceptions we have had or observed from others about the episode’s topic. For example, in Episode 2, we discussed an article regarding question-asking strategies for the world language classroom. We “gaslit” ourselves by assuming that if we ask many comprehension questions in our classes, we provide our students with the appropriate linguistic data. However, as we continued the episode and discussed our selected article, we found that either/or questions provided better linguistic input than open-ended questions, which led to novice language learners producing more grammatically accurate language.
- Gatekeep: Although we use a mix of open-access and restricted-access literature, we “un-gatekeep” articles each episode by summarizing the study and its participants, methods, results, discussion, and, if applicable, the pedagogical implications.
- Girlboss: In the final segment of the episode, we reflect on what the research says, what our misconceptions were, and how we can move our instruction forward with research-informed practices. In Episode 21, we discussed the benefits and challenges of guiding students to write collaboratively with their peers. During Girlboss, I was able to share how I have implemented collaborative writing and tips for others to try it out in their own classrooms.
The one-way communication inherent in podcasting, the hosts talking to each other and the audience listening, is appropriate for sharing information, but perhaps not the most efficient way to build a community of research-informed teachers. To remedy this lack of interaction with the audience, we brainstormed many ideas and ended up organizing a book study. This book study takes place on social media and allows Ben, Bryan, our friend Stacy, and me to discuss language teaching with the audience and synthesize the research we present in the podcast with the information from the book. Additionally, keeping with our Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss motif, each week in our interactions, we get to see what misconceptions people have had regarding the topic of the chapter, we get to un-gatekeep chapter-specific research, and we get to hear the wonderful ways that teachers “girlboss” their way to honing their instructional practices.
Call to Action
Although the segment titles Gaslight, Gatekeep, and Girlboss may not be appropriate titles for all podcasts, the format of SLAyyy provides a template for other knowledge brokers to discuss misconceptions, share research findings, and synthesize research and practical experience to help guide teachers to research-informed teaching practices. Some of the guiding principles that we at SLAyyy follow that may be helpful to others who wish to utilize podcasting as a tool for knowledge brokerage are:
- Mind the gap: When searching for the anchor study for an episode, we monitor discussions in online professional learning communities, noting what educators share, what they are curious about, and sometimes, what they misunderstand. Awareness of the issues that educators face helps us find relevant literature that will be beneficial to share with teachers.
- Find the keys to unlock the gate: What barriers stop educators from accessing research? Perhaps the amount of jargon makes the article difficult to read, maybe there is a paywall, or it is too long for busy educators to read while balancing their busy schedules. With careful consideration, whatever obstacle stands between teachers and academic literature can be made accessible in a podcast format.
- Keep action at the forefront: While pedagogical implications are stated in many studies, teachers need concrete examples of research-informed practices they can implement. While any suggestions may be helpful, knowledge brokers must acknowledge that participants in a study may not match the students their listeners teach. Keeping the potential participant-student misalignment in mind, podcasters can offer alternative suggestions to ensure that their listeners can have actionable steps to implement research-informed practices into their classrooms.
SLAyyy is a relatively new podcast, and we are still developing our process and identity, but we see a lot of potential to build a strong knowledge brokering platform. Moving forward, we hope to invite researchers onto our show to talk directly with the researcher, develop additional materials to support teachers in implementing research-informed practices, and continue to share our passion for learning the most we can about SLA and how the research can help make us more effective teachers and help our students develop higher levels of language proficiency.
As my students would say, I’m a yapper, I love to talk! Please feel free to reach out with any thoughts, ideas, or anything else: Email: bill@slayyypod.com; Instagram and Threads @languagley; and Bluesky @languageley.bsky.social. And if you’re interested in joining the book study, follow the SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone on Facebook. Until then, don’t forget to SLAyyy!
Author Bio:
Bill Langley is a Spanish teacher, author, and doctoral student whose work is dedicated to making second language acquisition research accessible and practical for the classroom. Based in Indianapolis, he is currently pursuing his Ed.D. in Second Language Instruction while teaching high school Spanish. His professional focus is on Comprehension-Based Communicative Language Teaching, and he has presented on topics related to input processing and meaning-focused instruction at state, regional, and national conferences.
To support other educators, Bill co-hosts the SLAyyy Podcast, which connects current research to classroom strategies. He is also the author of the learner-centered novella series No Toques, designed to provide engaging, comprehensible stories for Spanish students. Across all his work, Bill seeks to equip teachers with the tools and confidence to foster genuine language acquisition.