august/september 2016 | volume 11 | issue 3
Features
WORLD-READINESS STANDARDS
FOR LEARNING LANGUAGES
Interpersonal Communication:
Learners interact and negotiate meaning
in
spoken, signed, or written conversations
to share
information, reactions, feelings, and opinions.
STANDARDS
Interpretive Communication:
Learners understand, interpret, and analyze
what
is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of
topics.
COMMUNICATION
12
1,000 Currently Certified ACTFL
OPI Testers . . . and Counting
FOCUS TOPIC
Empowering Educators
UPCOMING FOCUS TOPIC
• Teachers in the Driver’s Seat
• Empowering Leadership
Effective Curriculum and
Unit Design
• Empowered Curriculum
Development
• Collaborating Across
Oceans and Hallways
Submit by Oct 1 for the
January/February 2017 issue!
• Collaborative Conversations
• Addressing Resistance
• Teachers Teaching Teachers
Andrew Amadei
17
ON THE COVER:
The Certification Experience:
Becoming an ACTFL OPI Tester
and Its Impact
A charming moment during the ACTFL Global
Engagement Initiative trip to Cuba for
educators. Learn more on p. 22.
Angela Gardner
VOLUME 11 | ISSUE 3
Presentational Communication:
Learners present information, concepts,
and ideas to
inform, explain, persuade, and narrate
on a variety
of topics using appropriate media and
adapting to
various audiences of listeners, readers,
or viewers.
Communicate effectively in
more than one language in order to
function
in a variety of situations and for multiple
purposes
STANDARDS
School and Global
Communities:
COMMUNITIES
Lifelong Learning:
Learners set goals
and reflect on
their progress in
using languages
for enjoyment,
enrichment, and
advancement.
Learners use the
language both within
and beyond the
classroom to interact
and collaborate in
their community and
the globalized world.
Cultural Comparisons:
Learners use the language
Learners use the language
to investigate, explain,
to investigate, explain,
and reflect on the nature
and reflect on the concept
of language through
of culture through
comparisons of the language comparisons
of the cultures
studied and their own.
studied and their own.
The National Standards Collaborative
Relating Cultural
Practices to
Perspectives:
CULTURES
Interact with
cultural competence
and understanding
communities at
home and around
the world
STANDARDS
Language Comparisons:
STANDARDS
Communicate and
interact with cultural
competence in
order to participate
in multilingual
COMPARISONS
Develop insight into the
nature of language and
culture in order to interact
with cultural competence
GOA
Learners use
the language to
investigate, explain,
and reflect on the
relationship between
the practices and
perspectives of the
cultures studied.
CONNECTIONS
Connect with other
disciplines and acquire
information and diverse
perspectives in order to use the
language to function in academic
and
career-related situations
L AREAS
STANDARDS
Making Connections:
Learners build, reinforce,
and expand their
knowledge of other
disciplines while using
the language to develop
critical thinking and to
solve problems creatively.
Board:
© Standards
WORLD-READINESS STANDARDS
FOR LEARNING LANGUAGES
Find your complimentary
classroom poster
in this issue!
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2016
President’s Message
ACTFL President Pete Swanson
7
Breaking News
8
22
28
Once-in-a-Lifetime Opportunity:
The ACTFL Global Engagement
Initiative Trip to Cuba
Interview with 2016 ACTFL
Convention Keynote Speaker
Mike Walsh
BriefBits10
Inside ACTFL
18
So You Say
56
30 Introduction:
EMPOWERING EDUCATORS
44 Targeted Talk About Teaching
in the Target Language
Tech Watch
59
Leah McKeeman
Upcoming Events Calendar
62
Lea Graner Kennedy and
Brandon Locke
Advertiser Index
63
Announcements63
Look for this symbol in this printed
edition of The Language Educator.
It alerts you to enhanced content
available in TLE Online, the interactive
version of the magazine available at
www.thelanguageeducator.org.
4
34 Creative Ways to Empower and
Engage Language Teachers Through
Professional Development
Eva Szabo
38 The Four-State Area Leadership
Initiative for Language Learning:
Empowering Educators for
Leadership
Grant Moss
41 Collaborating Across Oceans to
Foster Connections Across Hallways
Lori Langer de Ramirez and
Emily McCarren
Acquiring Information
and Diverse Perspectives:
Learners access and
evaluate information and
diverse perspectives that
are available through the
language and its cultures.
American Association of Teachers of
Arabic, American Association of Teachers
Collaborative Board 2015
of French, American Association of
American Association of Teachers of
standards4languages.org
Teachers of German, American Association
Modern Greek, American Association
of Teachers of Italian, American Association
of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese,
Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary
of Teachers of Japanese, American
American Classical League, American
Association of Teachers of Korean,
Schools, Chinese Language Teachers
Council of Teachers of Russian, American
Association, Modern Language Association,
Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages, American Sign Language
National Council of Less Commonly
Teachers Association,
Taught Languages, and National Standards
Task Force for Hindi
Learn more on p. 9.
Departments
Relating Cultural
Products to
Perspectives:
Learners use
the language to
investigate, explain,
and reflect on the
relationship between
the products and
perspectives of the
cultures studied.
47 The Proficiency Cohort:
Empowering Teachers Through
Curriculum Development
Catherine Ritz
50 Effectively Addressing Forces
that Resist Positive Changes to
Improve Language Learning
Claudia Fernández
53 Let’s Learn Together: Putting
Teachers in the Driver’s Seat of
Their Professional Growth
Thomas Sauer