Facts & Myths
about Achievement of Advanced
Professional Level L2 Proficiency
(ILR 4)
a presentation for BILC, Prague, May 2012
Dr. Betty Lou Leaver
Associate Provost
Directorate of Continuing Education
DLIFLC, USA
Organizational Information
DLIFLC has four directorates, administered by the
Provost:
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Directorate of Undergraduate Education
Directorate of Continuing Education
Directorate of Language Science & Technology
Directorate of Evaluation & Standards
Note: Provost reports to assistant commandant & commandant, who oversee
military structure.
Organizational Information,
cont’d
The Directorate of Continuing Education has five
schools, 37 sites:
• Distance Learning (sustainment & enhancement)
• Field Support (non-linguists)
• Extension Programs (lifelong learning for linguists)
• Resident Education (enhancement)
• Educational Support Services
– DAC (Diagnostic Assessment Center/DA specialist trainers)
– ASC (Academic Support Center)
– Command Language Program (360+)
Sources of Information
on Students Achieving ILR 4
This presentation is based on:
1. Experience with and feedback from upper level at
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Foreign Service Institute (US Department of State)
NASA
Defense Language Institute
University of Jordan (UJ)
2. Formal research funded by
– National Foreign Language Center
– Conference on College Composition and Communication
(National Council of Teachers of English)
Defining Advanced
Professional Level (ILR 4)
• Usually equivalent to WEHANS; would not be mistaken for
cultural native [ILR 3 over-self-assess; ILR 4 self-aware]
• Wide-ranging control of structure; nonnative slip may occur
• Language rarely hinders in any task; can set interpersonal
official, semi-official and non-professional tone [tailoring]
• Endurance & sophisticated verbal strategies: lectures,
conferences, debates
• Native social & circumstantial knowledge; not under all
conditions
• Shifts of subject matter & tone
• Understands standard and major dialects [& street talk]
About the Students
Quiz: Which of the following characteristics have
been associated with near-native L2 proficiency?
• Desire to integrate into
the culture
• Motivated by
compliments
• Tenacity
• High grades
• Quick learner
• Good ear
• Desire to do a good job
• Multilingual
neighborhood in
youth
• Multilingual home
• Time abroad
• Young age at onset
• Global learning style
• Female
• Marriage to a native
speaker
Answers to Quiz in Bold
• Desire to integrate into
the culture
• Motivated by
compliments
• Tenacity
• High grades
• Quick learner
• Good ear
• Desire to do a good job
• Multilingual
neighborhood in
youth
• Multilingual home
• Time abroad
• Young age at onset
• Global learning style
• Female
• Marriage to a native
speaker
Student Stories
• Student A (ectenic learner)
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Spanish
US government classes: FAO
Duty in Colombia
Community work
Voracious reader
Motivation: Instrumental (lawyer)
• Student B (ectenic learner)
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French
University classes
Study for degree in France
Voracious reader
Motivation: Vicarious (married to a French person)
More Student Stories
• Student C (synoptic learner)
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Russian
University classes
No experience abroad (two weeks after Level 4)
Community work
Job use (broadcaster)
Motivation: Intrinsic
• Student D (synoptic learner)
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German
University classes
Job abroad (publishing/editing English)
Motivation: Vicarious (married a German), intrinsic
Even More Student Stories
• Student E (synoptic learner)
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Russian
After school tutor: Literature
University classes: C average
US government classes
Job use
Degree work in country
Voracious reader & writer
Discouraged by teachers
Motivation: tenacity
Demotivator: linguistic &
pronunciation error
• Student F (synoptic learner)
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French
Childhood community L2
High school: creative writing
University classes – A/A+
Job use
No time ever spent abroad
Voracious reader & writer
Encouraged by teachers
Motivation: intrinsic
Demotivator: criticism for
regional accent
About the Upper Level DLI Programs
Success/Achievement
• Courses at DLI:
• Nine languages, 1-10 students per group
• Refresher, intermediate, advanced, DTRA, extension
• Course completion at graduation standard:
• 95% enrolling with prerequisites (ability not considered)
• 85% of all students
• 54% exceed graduation standards
• Negligible attrition (only those pulled by DTRA)
Results
Resident Education Graduation Statistics (Refresher/Int/Adv)
100%
Graduation Rate
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
Syllabi
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Highly individualized/diagnostically oriented
Content-based
Language & culture focus
Task-based authenticity, research, & realism
Exclusively authentic; limited/no textbooks
Formal and informal immersion
Course Content
• Subject matter core (language through content)
• Political, social, and historical events
• Immersion programs
– University classes (integrated or duplicated)
– Recyling vocab & grammar through all skills
– Related excursions & exercises (e.g., surveys)
• Integrated skills
• Focus on process and product
– Projects & portfolios
– Presentations
Language & Culture Focus
• “Grammar in the wild”
• Grammar manipulation through genre shift
• Language exercises
– Packaging & re-packaging
– Simplification of thought
– Embellishment of language
• Sociolinguistics & pragmatics [tailoring]
• Reading between the lines & beyond the text
Task-Based Realism
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Briefings to visitors
Teaching lower levels
Analyses & project reports
Student surveys (immersion programs)
True real-life tasks
– DTRA translations
– Assistance to ROK
Lower Level Task
vs. Upper Level Task
• Weather report
– Lower: Decide what to wear/pack
– Upper: Parody the speaker; produce a local report
• Biographical interviews
– Lower: Pairs interview each other & report out
– Upper: Students analyze professional interview, then
interview each other & report out, using culturally
appropriate text structure
• Grammar exercise: relative clauses
– Lower: identify the clauses & give alternative
– Upper: rewrite in a different genre
Lower Levels
vs. Upper Levels
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Focus on form(s) vs. focus on text
Using context vs. refined knowledge
Intensive reading vs. extensive reading
Teacher direction vs. self-direction
Rote memory vs. associative memory
Immersions in class & in country
Requests for repetition vs. elicitation
Defossilization (upper): structure & lexicon (automatic &
correct); strategies; autonomy; pragmatics & sociolinguistics;
level
Some References for Level 4
(Few Publications to Date)
• CDLC:
– Journal for Distinguished Language Proficiency (6 volumes)
– Teaching and Learning to Near-Native Levels of Second-Language
Proficiency (6 volumes of conference proceedings, 2003-2008)
– What Works: Helping Students Reach Native-Like Second-Language
Competence (MSI Press, 2006)
• Leaver:
– Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency (MSI Press, 2003)
– Individualized Study Plans for Very Advanced L2 Learners (MSI Press,
2003)
• Leaver, Ehrman, & Shekhtman. Achieving Success in Second Language
Acquisition (Cambridge University Press, 2005, chapter 10)
• Leaver & Shekhtman, eds. Developing Professional Level Foreign Language
Proficiency (Cambridge University Press, 2003)
• Shekhtman. Working with Advanced Students (MSI Press, 2003)
Some More References
(For Lower Levels: 2+ and 3)
• Byrnes. Advanced Language Learning: The Contribution of Halliday and
Vygotsky (Continuum, 2008)
• Byrnes, Heather, & Sprang, eds. Educating for Advanced Foreign Language
Capacities: Constructs, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment (Georgetown
University Press, 2006)
• Byrnes, Maxim, & Magnan. Advanced Foreign Language Learning, 2003
AAUSC Volume, Issues in Language Program Direction (Heinle, 2003)
• Ortega & Byrnes. The Longitudinal Study of Advanced L2 Capacities
(Routledge, 2008)
• Watch for Brown & Bown, forthcoming, possibly Georgetown University
Press, possible title: To 3 and Beyond
Centers for Higher Level
Proficiency Studies
• Center for the Advancement of Distinguished
Language Proficiency, San Diego State
University (ILR 4)
• Center for Advanced Language Proficiency,
Penn State University (ILR 2-3)
Note: These are foreign language centers and generally do not address
English.
Questions?