Yale CLS Virtual Brown Bag Series: Dr. Florencia Henshaw

Successful teaching strategies for online language courses  
with Dr. Florencia Henshaw
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all educators have been faced with the challenge of determining how best to utilize available technologies to provide students with quality web-based instruction. Although literature on computer-assisted language learning abounds, teaching online courses that integrate meaningful synchronous and asynchronous communication still remains a daunting task for most language educators. Therefore, the overarching goal of this talk is to help instructors tackle the pedagogical and practical challenges of fostering language development remotely. The presenter will discuss best practices and strategies, particularly as they pertain to community building, interaction, and assessment. Examples and ideas of technology-enhanced activities and projects will be provided.

Florencia Henshaw has a PhD in Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), where she is now the Director of Advanced Spanish. In her 14 years at UIUC, she has taught 19 different undergraduate and graduate courses, and she has designed seven online courses. Dr. Henshaw has published and presented on technology integration, heritage language instruction, and research-based pedagogical practices at national and international conferences