Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom

February 2025 – Volume 28, Number 4

https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.28112r2

Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom
Author:	Florencia G. Henshaw & Maris D. Hawkins (2022)
Publisher:	Hackett Publishing Company
Pages	e-ISBN	Price
xii + 198	9781647930066 9781647930073	$23.95 (Paper) $18.95 (e-book)

A significant challenge for language teachers, especially those beginning to explore fundamental aspects of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), is finding materials that clearly connect theoretical concepts and classroom practice. While many language pedagogy textbooks provide descriptions of a wide range of second language (L2) teaching concepts, the overwhelming content and lack of practical examples may lead novice teachers to abandon the material and make pedagogical decisions based on their own experiences, beliefs or preferences—something SLA experts caution against. Common Ground: Second Language Acquisition Theory Goes to the Classroom, co-authored by Henshaw and Hawkins, addresses this issue by offering concise and practical guidance on how to apply SLA principles in teaching. By concentrating on core SLA principles and offering practical examples, the authors aim to help educators develop effective teaching strategies and materials, enabling them to make informed pedagogical decisions.

This book covers various subthemes and is divided into three sections, each addressing core aspects of SLA and pedagogy. The first section (Chapters 1-2) introduces fundamental SLA principles and explores how they inform pedagogical decisions in L2 classrooms. The authors emphasize the importance of aligning instructional goals and assessment with the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, and they explore how integrated performance assessments can be an essential tool for evaluating L2 learners’ communicative abilities. This section serves as the foundation for understanding how theory can directly guide classroom practices, which is a key focus of the book.

The second section (Chapter 3-4) focuses on interpretive communication skills, such as reading and listening, with a strong emphasis on the role of comprehensible input for L2 acquisition. Building on SLA theory, the authors argue that input slightly beyond L2 learners’ current level supports language development (Krashen, 1985). This section stresses the importance of designing lessons that help L2 learners create form-meaning connections and deepen their understanding through structured input.

The third section (Chapter 5-6) addresses presentational and interpersonal communication and explores the importance of language production and interaction in L2 development. Drawing upon Swain’s (1985) Output Hypothesis and Long’s (1996) Interaction Hypothesis, the authors argue that L2 development relies heavily on learners’ ability to produce accurate and meaningful output as well as engage in effective interaction. The book also advocates for task-based language teaching, which encourages learners to complete meaningful tasks that require negotiation of meaning and collaboration, thus linking theory to practice in the classroom.

Common Ground is a useful resource which presents SLA principles through a concise format and offers educators a practical guide to applying theory in classroom settings. One of its key strengths is the clear structure of each chapter, which begins with “What Do I Need to Know?” to introduce essential SLA principles in straightforward, jargon-free language. This is followed by “What Does It Look Like in the Classroom” which provides concrete examples of how to implement these ideas. The chapters conclude with “Now That You Know,” which encourages reflection through discussion questions that prompt readers to apply the material to their own teaching contexts. This structure not only enables readers to see how SLA principles are applied in real-world teaching but also helps them incorporate these strategies into their own pedagogical decisions. Moreover, the book’s deliberate progression across chapters logically guides readers through interconnected SLA principles. For instance, after introducing fundamental communicative concepts in the first section, the later chapters respectively build on these concepts and focus on specific communicative skills in classroom implementation. This approach allows readers to see how the concepts from earlier chapters inform practical classroom applications. The careful progression aims to make challenging concepts more accessible for novice teachers and enable them to apply these concepts confidently in the classroom. For experienced teachers, the book can serve as a valuable refresher which offers quick access to relevant concepts and examples needed during classroom activities. In short, the book successfully accomplishes its purposes.

Nevertheless, several shortcomings should be noted. While the authors emphasize that their goal is to present a simplified framework of SLA concepts, some of their claims seem somewhat overly absolute. For instance, the assertion in Chapter 1 that “[language acquisition is] the (mostly) implicit process of building a linguistic system by making form-meaning connections from the input (p. 3)” may simplify the nature of language learning. Other claims, such as “[language acquisition] is a process we cannot consciously control (p. 4)” and “acquisition is the mostly implicit process of building a linguistic system … through the interpretation of meaning (p.5),” may also suggest an implicit view of language acquisition. While the authors do not entirely abandon the explicit process because they later incorporate explicit learning elements, like corrective feedback (p. 166), these statements may lead readers to believe that acquisition is largely a subconscious process. From a broader perspective, language learning is a complex and dynamic process that includes both implicit and explicit learning. Some scholars, such as Ellis (2005), have emphasized the critical role of explicit learning. Careful and precise claims could help prevent readers from developing a skewed understanding of language acquisition process, although readers may be able to recognize a more balanced view after reading the entire book.

One more limitation is the book’s narrow focus on task-based language teaching as the primary instructional method. While the method is grounded in SLA research and widely used in L2 classrooms, the exclusion of other prominent approaches, such as communicative language teaching and content-based language teaching, may limit novice teachers’ understanding of the broader spectrum of language teaching methodologies. Offering a more expansive view of SLA methodologies and discussing their respective strengths and limitations could provide a more comprehensive view, which gives educators the flexibility to choose the most suitable approach for their teaching context.

Overall, Common Ground is a thought-provoking and practical resource which offers a simplified framework of SLA and practical advice on applying its principles in teaching. While it may not be as in-depth as some advanced resources for researchers, this book is particularly valuable for early-career educators seeking to bridge SLA theory with classroom practice through a meaning-focused approach. For those at the start of their teaching journey, Common Ground serves as an essential guide that is both accessible and directly applicable to real-world teaching scenarios.

About the Reviewer

Zhupeng Li is a PhD candidate in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies at the University of Connecticut. His research interests involve Second Language Acquisition, Task-based Language Teaching, and Teaching English/Chinese as a Foreign Language. <zhupeng.li@uconn.edu> ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3513-6966

To Cite this Review

Li, Z. (2025). [Review of the book. (2024), Common ground: Second language acquisition theory goes to the classroom by Florencia G. Henshaw & Maris D. Hawkins (2022)]. Teaching English as a Second Language Electronic Journal (TESL-EJ), 28 (4). https://doi.org/10.55593/ej.28112r2

References

Ellis, N. (2005). At the interface: Dynamic interactions of explicit and implicit language knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 27(2), 305–352. https://doi.org/10.1017/S027226310505014X

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypotheses: Issues and implications. Longman.

Long, M. H. (1996). The role of the linguistic environment in second language acquisition. In W. Ritchie &T. Bhatia (Eds.), Handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 413–468). Academic Press.

Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass & C. Madden (Eds.), Input in second language acquisition (pp. 235-56). Newbury House.

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