In this episode, Krishna Cart discusses how teachers can use songs and other multimodal texts to build comprehension, engagement, and critical thinking for language learners. 

Resources: 

1. Strategy in Steps 

Step 1: Select a Song or Music Video Choose a song or MTV that fits within a poetry unit or comprehension-focused literacy lesson. Treat it the way you would treat a printed text, keeping the focus on meaning-making.

Step 2: Before Listening/Viewing — Build Background Knowledge Activate schema and prepare students for the text. This might include introducing key vocabulary, activating prior knowledge, or prompting thinking around the song's themes. Example questions for "I Just Can't Wait to Be King": What makes a good leader? Do leaders get to do what they want?

Step 3: During Listening/Viewing — Pause and Notice Use an interactive read-aloud approach — pause the song/video and direct students' attention not only to lyrics, but also to visuals, rhythm, movement, facial expressions, and cinematography. Use quick turn-and-talk prompts. Example questions: What do you notice about the character? How do other characters respond? Does this character seem responsible?

Step 4: Deepen into Multimodal Analysis Guide students to analyze specific cinematic and musical elements and discuss what they mean. Examples include:

• Analyzing color saturation and what it symbolizes (youth, excitement, naivety)
• Examining camera angles and how they construct a character's power or emotion
• Noticing how music tempo and tone shape the mood of a scene

Step 5: After Listening/Viewing — Connect to Standards and Lesson Goals Anchor the analysis to whatever the grade-level lesson requires — character motivation, theme, leadership, etc. The focus shifts based on grade level and learning objectives.

2. Padlet designed by Krishna with several ideas

Click here

This episode features adult ESOL teacher Elizabeth Bergner, who shares how she uses the Color Vowel Chart to build sound awareness with multilingual learners.

Resources: 

1. Latest interactive version of the chart  https://www.colorvowel.com/interactive-chart
2. Website to take the course and exploring further  https://www.colorvowel.com/

In this episode, Andrea Czart explains how Virtual Field Experiences (VFEs) can bring culture and history to life for heritage Spanish learners. Using a digital exploration of a mural by Diego Rivera, students practice art analysis, historical thinking, and academic writing in Spanish.

Andrea's VFE

Sueño de una tarde dominical en la Alameda Central

In this episode, Dr. Juan Freire discusses a strategy for culturally sustaining teaching. 

Picture examples of the passport

In this episode, Min Paing Moe offers practical ways to modify listening instruction when technology, audio, and materials are limited. In specific, he shares the LTRS (listen, talk, recall, swap) strategy for listening practice in low-resource contexts. He expands on each component and provides ideas for how to modify language teaching resources to successfully incorporate listening in any teaching environment.

Resources:

(1)   Practical and user-friendly digital tools for ELT teachers: https://padlet.com/minpaingmoe/elt-teacher-community-resources-fs1snhinuac000vq (feel free to add more)

(2)   Teaching in low resource contexts webinar: https://youtu.be/8nGUoMn7_ro?si=7HQWeCmK11wodnTF (In this webinar, I focused on utilizing differentiated instruction in low resource classrooms.)

In this episode of The Language Educators' Exchange, hosts Dr. Aniqa Shah and Dr. Sarah Albrecht welcome Dr. Mandy Stewart, professor at Texas Woman’s University and author of The Multilingual ELA Classroom (NCTE). Dr. Stewart shares the HEART approach to teaching for biliteracy—strategies that empower teachers to support multilingual learners even when they do not speak students’ home languages. Focusing on the “T” in HEART (teacher-created mentor texts), she offers concrete classroom examples from the U.S. and Poland that highlight how identity-affirming, multimodal mentor texts foster engagement, belonging, and biliteracy development for immigrant and refugee students. Listeners will leave with practical ideas, research-based insights, and links to open-access resources they can immediately apply in their own classrooms.

Resources:

Open Access Journal Articles that show teacher mentor texts for language learning.

• In Poland-And this gives a full explanation of the HEART approach to teaching for biliteracy
• In the US
• Forthcoming book with NCTE that shows teacher mentor texts PreK-12

Stewart, M.A. & & Abbasher, D. (2024). Supporting biliteracy in the English language arts through family partnerships: Cases of early childhood teachers and their Arabic- and Russian-speaking students. Research in the Teaching of English, 59(1), 19-46. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.58680/rte202459119

Stewart, M.A., & Genova, H. (2020). But does this work with English learners? A guide for English Language Arts teachers grades 6-12. Corwin.

Flint, P., Dollar, T. & Stewart, M.A. (2019). Hurdling over language barriers: Building relationships with adolescent newcomers through literacy advancement. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 62(5), 509-519. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.927

In this episode, classroom teacher and teacher educator Colleen Hill shares how she helps students develop vocabulary across all content areas through the four-square template. 

Episode notes: 

Four-box Strategy Steps by Colleen Hill 

In this episode, we talk with bilingual specialist Gloria Sevilla about how we can better support multilingual learners with disabilities. Gloria shares how her own journey informs her work, and we discuss practical ways to bridge bilingual and special education using tools like UDL, translanguaging, and bilingual resources that give students more voice and choice.

Show notes: 

Gloria's Edutopia profile with downloadable resources: https://www.edutopia.org/profile/gloria-sevilla

Book referenced by Gloria: https://www.tcpress.com/teaching-emergent-bilingual-students-with-dis/abilities-9780807768105

How can you turn a small pull-out group into the most exciting part of the school day for English language learners? In this episode of the Language Educator’s Exchange, ELD specialist Eliana Belle shares how she transformed her newcomer sessions with gamified learning strategies. From buzzers to Kahoot! quizzes, Eliana walks us through her step-by-step process of bringing energy, engagement, and laughter into language development lessons.

Listeners will hear how trial and error led to a breakthrough, why gamification matters for language learning, and how even the simplest tools can radically shift classroom culture. Whether you’re new to gamified teaching or looking for fresh ideas to motivate your ELL students, this episode offers practical takeaways and resources you can use right away.

Resources:

- How to use Kahoot!

- Kahoot certification course

-Gamification for ELLs- Article

In this episode, Eliana Belle, a passionate elementary school educator, shares strategies for intentional multiple exposures to content-area vocabulary in all four domains 

Resources: 

Strategies for Intentional Multiple Exposure for Content-area Vocabulary: Click here

In this special anniversary episode of the Language Educator’s Exchange, hosts Dr. Aniqa Shah and Dr. Sarah Albrecht are joined by returning guest Dr. Jill Castek and first-time guest Dr. Kathy Harris for a reflective conversation on language, literacy, and education. Together, they revisit major themes from the past year—multimodal literacy, translanguaging, and community engagement—while exploring how evolving definitions of literacy and technology shape teaching practices. Drawing on decades of research and classroom experience, Jill and Kathy share personal stories, “aha” moments, and practical insights for educators. Whether you’re a seasoned teacher or just entering the field, this episode weaves together the big questions and enduring lessons that continue to shape language education today.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Alma Montemayor-Sándigo about bilingual teacher professional identity and the influence their professional identity can have on their students' acquisition of academic identity. Ultimately, a strong professional identity can put them in the position of becoming solvers not just of situations, but of systems.

In this episode Dr. Leon speaks about language ideologies and how to address them in the classroom 

Episode Resources:

• English Listening Lesson Library Online (ELLLO): over 3,000 free listening lessons for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. The lessons include audios or videos, vocabulary, grammar, and even practice quizzes. Wonderful resource to expose students to fluent users of English from all over the world.
• English with an Accent Language, Ideology and Discrimination in the United States by Rosina Lippi-Green: this book offers a very accessible discussion about language ideologies and its impact on society.  
• Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners Tools for Equity by Sydney Snyder & Diane Staehr Fenner: this book offers practical resources for content instruction to ensure culturally responsive teaching that serves the unique needs of multilingual learners. It includes activities to help students explore their identities, connect with families and lots of useful information. 

In this conversation, we discussed multimodal language teaching, its relevance in the K-12 classroom, and how teachers can adapt despite curricular and technological limitations. 

In this conversation, we speak with Dr. Maria Bhattacharjee about the use of digital resources to enhance the reading experience of bilingual children and their families. 

Episode Resources: 

Link to the bilingual e-library:  E-library

Video introduction to the e-library: Video

Aldine ISD student showcase: Showcase 

Dr. Ali Yaylali talks with us about turning misconceptions about multilingual learners into asset-based teaching approaches. 

In this episode, Sarah, one of our co-hosts, takes a deep dive into using pedagogical translation for language and literacy teaching. Pedagogical translation can be used across ages, language-learning stages, and content-area contexts, so tune in to see how you might use it in your teaching environment.

Episode Resources:

For more information on topics discussed in this episode, please see the following:

OER teacher's guide using translation in the world language classroom (these activities can be adapted for other learning environments):

Incorporating Translation in the World Language Classroom: A Teacher's Guide: https://opentextbooks.library.arizona.edu/scolina/

Transfer of content learned in one language into another (common underlying proficiency):

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5571872/#:~:text=Cummins%20(1981)%20introduced%20the%20idea,L2%20are%20not%20separate%20abilities.

Escamilla et al.'s Así se dice translation activity:

Escamilla, K., Hopewell, S., Butvilofsky, S., Sparrow, W., Soltero-González, L., Ruiz-Figueroa, O., & Escamilla, M. (2014). Biliteracy from the start: Literacy squared in action (pp. 25-26). Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.

Preschool verbal translation activity:

Kultti, A., & Pramling, N. (2017). Translation activities in bilingual early childhood education: Children’s perspectives and teachers’ scaffolding. Multilingua, 36(6), 703-725.

Poetry translation in mixed world-heritage language Spanish class:

Albrecht, S. Pedagogical translation for reading comprehension in mixed HL‐L2 secondary classrooms. Foreign Language Annals.

Pedagogical translation as a culturally-sustaining pedagogy:

Albrecht, S., Hill, C., & Smith, K. J. (2023). Pedagogical Translation as a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Bilingual Language Environments. English in Texas, 53(2), 42-49.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Jennifer Dalzell about designing and implementing effective educational programs for adult language learners. Jennifer is a dynamic educator, researcher, and school leader with over 15 years of experience in leadership roles within educational and community organizations. She has also taught extensively in community colleges and adult public charter schools. Throughout her career, she has held several key leadership positions, including being a founder and manager of a bilingual teaching assistant program, professional development specialist, and director of adult education. Currently, she serves as the Chief Academic Officer at a charter school in Washington, DC, specializing in adult literacy education. During our conversation, Jennifer focuses on the unique characteristics of adult language learners and offers tips on designing learning experiences that make the learning process relevant to and effective for this group.  

In this episode, we talk with Maryam Aslam, an English as an Additional Language (EAL) teacher in Dubai. As an EAL and Inclusion Specialist, she focuses on linguistic acquisition and coordinates fast track EAL strategies for diverse learners. She supports students with dyslexia and additional learning needs, ensuring an inclusive environment that promotes engagement. Maryam has expertise in multi-sensory teaching which allows her to create differentiated lessons tailored to individual strengths. 

In this discussion, Maryam shares key strategies for teaching in super diverse classrooms and for collaborating as educational teams, reminding us that, in some way, all teachers are language teachers.

This episode features Catalina Lugo, lecturer in bilingual education with the University of Houston-Downtown in Texas. She is a former classroom teacher in Mexico and the US and a bilingual dyslexia specialist. Ms. Lugo shares multiple tips to identify and help multilingual students with dyslexia and to distinguish between students dealing with language vs. dyslexia challenges.

Episode Resources:

As mentioned in the podcast episode, the second language acquisition theories of both Stephen Krashen and Jim Cummins have been highly influential in education. The resources below are a suggested starting point for familiarizing yourself with their work:

Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. 

This is an early, seminal work by Krashen on second language acquisition. Krashen published multiple additional articles building upon this work, and many others have published supporting or controverting Krashen's theories.

Cummins, J. (2008). BICS and CALP: Empirical and theoretical status of the distinction. Encyclopedia of language and education, 2(2), 71-83.

In this chapter, Cummins revisits his early work from the late 1970's on Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills and Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency and their educational implications. Like Krashen, Cummins has published extensively on this topic, as have many others in support or criticism.

Join Dr. Nahal Rodieck as she talks about the importance of drawing upon students' linguistic, cultural and experiential resources when teaching language and discusses a few strategies for doing so. Dr. Rodieck has been a language educator for almost 25 years. She holds bachelors of arts and masters of arts degrees in English and a PhD in Rhetoric, Composition and the teaching of English. Quite impressively, she also holds a degree in legal studies, specializing in juvenile law. 

Dr. Rodiek currently teaches freshman English to diverse student groups at Pima Community College. She also holds writing workshops for incarcerated children. She is also involved in teacher education for middle and high school teachers through the Southern Arizona Writing Fellowship. 

Join guest Dr. Jill Castek as she discusses the connection between language learning and literacy. Dr. Castek is Professor of Literacy, Technology, Bi & multilingual Learners & STEM Education in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies in the College of  Education at the University of Arizona.  She is also a part of the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching (SLAT) program at the University of Arizona. A former teacher and literacy specialist, Dr. Castek has a few decades of experience working to support students’ reading and literacy development in early and middle grades.  Before beginning her journey in higher ed, she taught Reading Recovery, led family literacy programs, and worked with English language learners and community literacy programs in the Bay Area of California. 

Welcome to the Language Teachers’ Exchange, the ultimate podcast for second language teaching enthusiasts and learners of all levels! We are Drs. Sarah Albrecht and Aniqa Shah, your hosts.

Every two weeks, we dive into the fascinating world of language teaching and learning, offering expert insights, practical tips, and engaging stories from polyglots and language researchers and educators.  Our episodes are packed with the latest techniques in additional language teaching, ideas for turning research into practice, and motivational success stories. 

In this episode, we introduce ourselves, our podcast, and our guest for Episode 1.