Summer 2025 Webinar Series Recordings: Transforming Language Teaching Materials

Transforming Language Teaching Materials: From Selection and Adaptation, to Creation, to Successful Implementation

 

Language teaching and learning materials encompass a rich spectrum of resources—from traditional textbooks and teacher/student-generated content to digital applications, and authentic realia—serving as foundational elements in language programs and classrooms worldwide. These materials bridge the gap between theoretical pedagogical approaches and practical classroom implementation, while providing essential structure to the learning experience. The effectiveness of these resources, however, hinges critically on language educators’ ability to thoughtfully select, adapt, and implement them in ways that align with specific learning outcomes and address diverse student needs within their unique teaching contexts. This crucial intersection of materials and pedagogical expertise will be explored throughout our webinar series, with each speaker offering distinct insights and perspectives. Watch the webinars below to learn how to incorporate these into your language teaching.

Click on the titles below to access the recordings, slides and resources for the webinars in this series.

You can also view all the recordings in our YouTube webinar playlist!

Heather Willis Allen

Heather Willis Allen

(University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Implementing Multiliteracies in Textbook-Driven Language Curricula

 

In this interactive webinar, you’ll discover practical strategies to balance commercial textbook use with innovative activities that foster deeper cultural connections and meaningful language acquisition. Dr. Allen will share concrete examples from an intermediate French course that you can adapt to your own teaching context.

What you’ll take away:

  • Fresh perspectives on evaluating textbook strengths and limitations
  • Effective techniques for integrating cultural literacy as a multidimensional goal
  • Practical resources aligned with multiliteracies pedagogy
  • Sustainable approaches to course design that won’t leave you exhausted
  • Actionable ideas for helping your students engage in authentic “Meaning Design”

Whether you teach at the K-12 or collegiate level, this session offers valuable insights for language educators looking to create more engaging and culturally rich learning experiences while maintaining instructional sustainability.

Some of what attendees told us they found most beneficial about this webinar:
I appreciate that the questions presenters posed addressed the questions and wonders that I occasionally had in my everyday practice of directing the language program and teaching language courses. Their book directs me to potential resources that may help me to answer these questions.

The Q&A sessions were great in terms of hearing similar situations other teachers are dealing with and, needless to say, making it interactive.

I am currently teaching English as a second language to students who are preparing for a really old-fashioned mechanical exam, and the materials are challenging for me as the teacher in that they are full of mistakes as well as presenting weird, controversial, and biased claims. The only solution I could find so far is to openly criticize the texts and make constant corrections or adjustments with the students at the expense of losing my job. Thanks to this webinar, I have realized that I am actually teaching students to analyze the material and, hopefully, to think critically rather than seeing the textbook as sacred. As some of the mistakes are due to direct translation from Turkish to English, they can see how that does not work, and this may enable them to realize there is more to learning a language than directly translating from another language.

This webinar made me aware of the different aspects of textbook usage in lessons, and makes the related terms and definitions clearer for my understanding.

The presenter’s knowledge base and practical experience, understanding that some of the issues I have as an LPA are universal (I’m not alone).

It expanded my perspective on the importance of the multiliteracies in second language teaching and reminded me that L2 textbooks shouldn’t focus only on grammar or vocabulary.

Adriana Diaz

Adriana Diaz

(University of Queensland)

The Evolving Landscape of Language Instructional Materials: Navigating Challenges and Embracing Opportunities

 

In this webinar, participants will:

  • unpack three urgent and interconnected challenges – accessibility, inclusivity, and authenticity – through the lenses of social justice, critical pedagogy, and decolonial theory, while also exploring the opportunities they offer for more equitable teaching;
  • focus on Open Educational Resources (OERs) as sustainable solutions that promote equitable access, dismantle normativities, amplify diverse voices, and empower educators to critically engage with content;
  • explore real-world examples of OERs that challenge normative frameworks, encourage learner agency, and foster critical multilingual awareness;
  • engage with practical strategies for educators seeking to make more intentional, justice-oriented choices when selecting, adapting, and creating instructional materials;
  • leave with concrete ideas for integrating more inclusive and critically engaged materials into their own teaching contexts.
Some of what attendees told us they found most beneficial about this webinar:
I love the reminder that we have to do constant, ongoing work to be inclusive, accessible, and equitable.

What I found most beneficial about this webinar was the emphasis on critically evaluating instructional materials and the practical strategies offered for adapting them to diverse learner needs. I appreciated the focus on cultural responsiveness, inclusivity, and the real-life examples that helped me reflect on how to improve my own teaching materials.

The presentation was well organized, and thought-provoking. It really encourages re-examination of teaching and instructional practices, and also validating of my attempts to address the issues raised. Perhaps not always successfully, but I will keep trying.

The most beneficial part of the webinar was learning how to critically select and create inclusive, authentic, and accessible instructional materials using OERs to better support diverse learners.

Dr. Diaz was very passionate and knowledgeable about the topic, as well as respectful towards other points of view. The resources shared were very interesting and helpful.

The content, including conceptual points and thought-provoking ideas, is definitely the most beneficial for me. Having attended many CERCLL events since the Pandemic, I can say that the presentation content earlier was very much consistent with CERCLL’s push for social justice and equity through learning of cultures and languages. I am one with CERCLL on such an important and truly relevant goal. This is why I find the content of every session that I participated in most beneficial.

Austin Pack

Austin Pack

(Brigham Young University - Hawai'i)

 

 

 

Working Smarter, Not Harder: Applying SLA Theory to AI Use in Language Education

Attendees will leave this webinar with concrete strategies for prompt-engineering, practical applications for their classrooms, and a clearer understanding of the potential role of AI in augmenting language education. This webinar is geared toward all language educators, regardless of their experience in using generative AI. 

Some of what attendees told us they found most beneficial about this webinar:
It’s the FIRST time I received a simple way to approach and use ChatGPT.

I loved seeing how we can maximize AI as educators and the tips to make it the most helpful. I rarely get language focused training; so to get language specific technology training was awesome! I will use these tools a lot in my class.

The links, the chat (communication among colleagues), and that it is recorded, so we can go back to it.

This webinar is very timely, especially in the current age and time where AI seems to be permeating through almost all aspects of human life, including education, language teaching and research. I enjoyed the practical hands-on activity and his sharing of resources to help attendees further.

Great ideas about prompt generation for teachers to use, will definitely be using these as I develop more activities for my classes.

Austin’s website and extensive research on the topic is incredible. I am subscribed to the newsletter and look forward to learn more about AI form the research perspective as well as use of new AI tools.