october /november 2015 | volume 10 | issue 4
Features
16
A Perfect Match: German
Language and STEM
FOCUS TOPIC
Register
by October 28
for the 2015
ACTFL Convention
in San Diego!
Transforming the Pathway
to Learning
• Effectively Using Data
• Collecting Evidence of Learning
• Proficiency Levels Informing Instruction
UPCOMING FOCUS TOPIC
Creating Standards-Based
Assessment, Evaluation, and
Grading
Katrina Griffin
Submit by Dec. 1 for the Mar/Apr
2016 issue!
ACTFL Level
ORAL PROFI CIENC Y LEVEL S
IN THE WORK PLACE
19
Maria Villalobos-Buehner of Rider University
in New Jersey assisting a student in the
language lab.
With French as the Focus—
Everything Is Not Business
as Usual
Mollie Monaco
VOLUME 10 | ISSUE 4
Language Functions
5
Ability to tailor language to specific
audience, persuade, negotiate. Deal
with nuance and subtlety.
4
Superior
3
Discuss topics extensively, support
opinions, hypothesize. Deal with
linguistically unfamiliar situations.
2+
Narrate and describe in past,
present, and future. Deal effectively
with an unanticipated complication.
Advanced
Mid
2
1+
Intermediate
Low
1
University Language Professor, Financial
Services Marketing
Consultant, Foreign Area Officer,
Lawyer, Judge, Court
Interpreter
Banking and Investment Services Customer
Service Representative,
Fraud Specialist, Account Executive,
Medical Interpreter, Patient
Advocate, Court Stenographer, Court
Interpreter, Human
Resources Benefits Specialist, Technical
Service Agent, Collections
Representative, Estimating Coordinator
K–12 Language Teacher, Nurse, Social
Worker, Claims Processor,
Police Officer, Maintenance Administrator,
Billing Clerk, Legal
Secretary, Legal Receptionist, 911 Dispatcher,
Consumer Products
Customer Services Representative, Retail
Services Personnel
Intermediate
High
Intermediate
Mid
Corresponding Professions/Po
sitions*
Fire Fighter, Utilities Installer, Auto
Inspector, Aviation Personnel,
Missionary, Tour Guide
Create with language, initiate,
maintain, and bring to a close
simple conversations by asking and
responding to simple questions.
Examples of Who Is Likely
to Function at This Level
Foreign Service: Diplomat, Contract
Negotiator, International
Specialist, Intelligence Specialist
Physician, Human Resources Communications
Consultant,
Financial Services Senior Consultant,
Quality Assurance
Specialist, Marketing Manager, Financial
Advisor, Broker,
Military Linguist, Translation Officer
Advanced
High
Advanced
Low
ON THE COVER:
ILR
Distinguished
Cashier, Sales Clerk (highly predictable
contexts), Receptionist
• Highly articulate, professionally
specialized native speakers
• Language learners with extended
(17 years) and current
professional and/or educational
experience in the target culture
• Well-educated native speakers
• Educated language learners with
extended professional and/or
educational experience in the target
language environment
• Language learners with graduate
degrees in language or a
related area and extended educational
experience in target
environment
• Heritage speakers, informal learners,
non-academic learners
who have significant contact with
language
• Undergraduate majors with year-long
study in
the target language culture
• Undergraduate language majors
• Language learners following 6–8
year sequences of study
(e.g., AP) or 4–6 semester college
sequences
• Language learners following 4-year
high school sequence or
2-semester college sequence
• Language learners following an
immersion language program
in Grades K– 6
Novice High
0+
Novice Mid
0
Novice Low
• Language learners following content-based
language program
in Grades K– 6
Communicate minimally with
formulaic and rote utterances, lists,
and phrases.
• Language learners following 2
years of high school language
study
*The levels of proficiency associated
with each of the positions above are
minimal levels of oral proficiency
based on task analyses. The minimal
levels were determined by subject
matter experts from companies and
agencies who use ACTFL proficiency
tests.
www.actfl.org |
facebook.com/actfl |
@actfl
ORAL PROFICIENCY LEVELS
IN THE WORKPLACE
Find your complimentary
classroom poster enclosed
in this issue!
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2015
Learn more on p. 9.
Departments
President’s Message
ACTFL President
Jacque Bott Van Houten
7
Breaking News
8
20
Interview with ACTFL 2015
Keynote Speaker Rick Steves
23
Leadership and Languages:
Preparing Leaders at All Levels
Sheri Spaine Long
BriefBits10
Inside ACTFL
12
So You Say
50
Regional Updates
52
Legislative Look
56
26 Introduction:
TRANSFORMING THE PATHWAY
TO LEARNING
Tech Watch
59
Aleidine J. Moeller
Upcoming Events Calendar
62
Advertiser Index
63
30 How Educators Are Using
Proficiency Levels and Data to
Inform Instruction
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
Douglass Crouse
34 Effectively Analyzing
Student Data, Student Work,
and Classroom Practice Using
Protocols
40 Evidence of Student Learning:
A Starting Point for Collecting
and Analyzing Data Related to
Communication
Nicole Sherf and Tiesa Graf
44 The Roles of Competence
Perception, Identities, and Selves
in Language Learning Motivation
María Fernanda Villalobos-Buehner
Donna Spangler
The Language Educator
n
Oct/Nov 2015
© 2015