In preparation for teaching a Foundations of Second Language Acquisition class to pre-service and practicing teachers, I watched numerous videos related to first and second language acquisition. Really, it’s more fun than the academic sounding vocabulary in the proceeding sentence makes it sound. Here are a few that show how exciting the field can be, make me think, and I hope encourage my students to make connections to our course readings and beyond!
The Birth of a Word by Deb Roy may very well be my new favorite TED Talks. You can read more about Deb Roy here.
Patricia Kuhl gives a TED Talk entitled The Linguistic Genius of Babies. She describes some interesting findings about language acquisition. The video can be accessed here, and you can read more about Patricia Kuhl and her work.
In addition to TED Talks, RSA animate continues to captivate me. Here’s an RSA animate with Steven Pinker entitled Language as a Window into Human Nature.
As a challenge to my College of Education students, I want to ask in the wider picture, how does what Pinker says relate to what and how we teach language? How does it relate to other things we have read or discussed this term?
If you were interested in these videos, you may also be interested in past posts made about TED Talks and RSA Animate. Happy viewing!
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