American Council On The Teaching Of Foreign Languages Research Articles

AL-KUTUB AL-MADRASIYAH AL-‘ARABIYAH FĪ INDŪNISIYĀ MIN MAẒŪRI WAṬANĪYIN WA ‘ĀLAMĪYIN

The study of school textbooks is interesting to examine comprehensively and in-depth. The issues with textbooks can be mapped into three crucial problems: First, issues related to the preparation and assessment phase. Second, issues related to the distribution of books, including accessibility and the purchasing power of textbooks. Third, problems related to the usage of books. This research focuses on developing a comprehensive assessment instrument for Arabic language textbooks. The researcher conducted research and development using the ADDIE model, which was developed from the instruments of the National Education Standards Agency (BSNP), the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), as well as expert opinions. The results of this research and development show: First, the development of a comprehensive assessment instrument for Arabic language textbooks, consisting of four components: appearance, content, language, and presentation or teaching. Each component has indicators and sub-assessment items, totaling 50 assessment items. Second, the instrument was tested on Arabic language textbooks published by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, with a resulting score of 77.48, indicating they are suitable with major revisions needed.

Assessing the Efficacy of Language Assessment Tools in Educational Settings

Language assessment plays a pivotal role in evaluating learners’ language proficiency and informing educational practices. This paper provides a comprehensive review of international standards guiding the assessment of language proficiency in educational settings. Drawing upon established frameworks such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines, this review examines the key principles, methodologies, and criteria for assessing the efficacy of language assessment tools. It explores the importance of validity, reliability, authenticity, and practicality in the design and implementation of language assessment instruments. Furthermore, it discusses the significance of considering socio-cultural and contextual factors in ensuring the fairness and equity of language assessment practices. The review also highlights emerging trends and challenges in language assessment, including the integration of technology and the need for continuous professional development for assessors. By synthesizing international standards and best practices, this paper offers valuable insights for educators, assessment specialists, and policymakers striving to enhance the quality and effectiveness of language assessment in educational contexts.

An implementation of integrated performance assessment model in vocational English for communication learning

This research implemented the Integrated Performance Assessment (IPA) model within the context of vocational English for communication learning. The IPA model, proposed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), serves as a comprehensive framework aimed at unifying teaching and assessment methodologies to enhance students' speaking abilities. The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the efficacy of the IPA model in improving students' communication skills within a vocational English setting. First-semester students at AKN Blitar serve as the subjects of this research. A mixed-method approach is employed, encompassing both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Pre-test and post-test stages are conducted, with student scores calculated using the Shapiro-Wilk test to ensure the validity of the findings. The results of this research demonstrate a significant improvement in students' communication skills following the implementation of the IPA model. Despite the observed increase in scores between the pre-test and post-test stages, further investigation reveals that the significance value (p) remains above 0.05 (sig. > 0.05), underscoring the need for continued assessment and refinement of the IPA model in vocational English education.

Arabic Curriculum Design in the Merdeka Curriculum from the Perspective of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL)

This paper aims to analyze the design of the Arabic language learning curriculum in the Merdeka curriculum. Researchers use the ACTFL standard in analyzing the content of the Arabic language curriculum in the aspect of competence and depth of mastery of Arabic formulated in the Merdeka curriculum. The purpose of this analysis is to compare Arabic learning outcomes in the Merdeka curriculum with ACTFL standards used internationally in learning foreign languages. The type of research used is qualitative research with a content analysis approach. Data collection methods with documentation. The data and data sources of this research are the Decree of the Director General of Islamic Education 3211 of 2022 concerning the learning outcomes of Islamic religious education and Arabic for the Merdeka Curriculum in Madrasah. Qualitative content analysis design of the Kripendorff model through the stages of selecting units, determining samples, recording data, reducing data, drawing conclusions, narrating research results. The results showed that the Arabic curriculum in the Merdeka curriculum based on ACTFL is divided into 2 aspects, namely: aspects of language skills and language proficiency levels. Language skills include: 1) language skills (language proficiency and language elements), 2) communication skills: interpersonal communication, presentation communication and interpretive communication, 3) cultural skills. The Arabic language learning curriculum design in the Merdeka curriculum is taught from phase A, the easiest level relevant to the ACTFL standard at the low beginner level and phase F is the highest level relevant to the ACTFL standard at the superior level. Analysis of Arabic learning outcomes in the Merdeka curriculum based on ACTFL standards is at the Novice Low to superior level.

Racial Inclusivity in the Spanish Curriculum: A Case for Afro-Hispanic Literature

Racial Inclusivity in the Spanish Curriculum: A Case for Afro-Hispanic Literature Jerry L. Parker Ahead of the recent wave of social justice movements (e.g., [All] Black Lives Matter (#BLM), #MeToo, #StopJewishHate, #StopAsianHate), in 2019 the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) declared a stance on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in language education. It affirmed that it “values diversity and strives for inclusion across foreign language teaching and learning contexts.” Such a profound statement was a rallying cry for world language teachers, researchers, advocates, and activists to further ensure that all students succeed regardless of where they are from or where they plan to go. While other leading language organizations such as the American Association of Teachers of French (2020) and the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (2021) followed suit with their own DEIB statements, there is still more to be done. This article seeks to add to the growing conversation on DEIB in word language curricula and instructional practices by sharing my experience with integrating Afro-Hispanic literature into an intermediate Spanish II course. Spanish 202 (Intermediate Spanish II) is a general education course required in certain majors at my university. The departmental goal of this course is to review basic grammar such as verb tenses and syntax and to use the language in communicative contexts. The vocabulary is usually a little more specific and geared toward college students’ interests and aspects of daily life. Culture is also normally focused on a more sophisticated study of everyday life in Spanish-speaking countries and facets of literature, history, music, education, and the arts. Students who successfully complete this course should ideally possess a Novice High to Intermediate Low level of proficiency in the language. Although I only detail one unit from the course, this experience was very powerful because it showed how all students, regardless of race, gender, religion, and other aspects of identity, truly do benefit from DEIB efforts in world language courses. This experience also serves as an example for others seeking to follow the same path as it relates to increasing DEIB efforts in their teaching. Particularly in Spanish, it provides a template for integrating the work of Afro-Hispanic authors into Novice and Intermediate level courses. The Reality of Black Students and Languages Just as many English, history, and humanities departments have started to move toward a more culturally inclusive curriculum to retain marginalized students, it is time for world languages to do the same. Additive Curricular Nullification, or the inclusion of discussions or units that promote critical perspectives on issues of language and society are key to advancing social justice in world languages (Reagan and Osborn 249). Ignoring racial diversity in language teaching reinforces the legacies of inequity and exclusion upon which America and the American education school system were built (Anya and Randolph). Hence, saying phrases like “I don’t see color” are perceived as “I want to forget the historical ramifications for your people from when mine and others used it as a means for defining American society” (Anya and Randolph 24). This attitude is not acceptable. [End Page 3] There currently exist larger degrees of diversity (e.g., racial/ethnic, gender and sexuality, socioeconomic) in Spanish language classrooms than what teachers experienced just 25 years ago. The result has become greater emphasis on and understanding of the need for teaching practices that will be received positively and simultaneously align with the learning needs of a wide array of students (Brown et al. 155; Rosa and Flores 175). Although for decades educators have argued that no individual should experience marginalization of their contributions or talents because of their unique attributes, there has historically been and still is disproportionally lower enrollment of Black students in comparison to other racial and ethnic groups in World Languages courses. Likewise, of the number of Black students who do enroll, an even smaller number of them graduate college with a major or minor in a language (Parker 2022). In looking at the data for 2020 and 2021 published by the National Center for Educational Statistics, the number of Black students leaving college with a bachelor’s degree in...

Cultivating Community through Language Learning in a Benedictine Seminary Network

St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, a seminary located in southern Indiana, was founded in 1857 by monks of the Benedictine order of Einsiedeln in Switzerland. The seminary has since been devoted to the education of faith leaders—priests, deacons, and graduate lay students. Due to the growth of underserved Latino populations in the Midwest region of the United States, there is a need to prepare future faith leaders to serve Latino congregations. This work provides an exploration into the ways in which language learning collaborations based on Benedictine hospitality can cultivate community. It outlines a Benedictine pedagogy of community that is threefold. First, given the importance of language to communicate with members of Latino communities in the United States, the cultivation of community is understood in terms of the world readiness standards of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Second, because Benedictine monasteries were founded on the value of hospitality, these interactions are imbued with Benedictine hospitality. Third, it is argued that Benedictine communities are contexts in which the liminal intertwines with the liminoid, resulting in fertile ground for the creation of what we call liminal/liminoid encounters that have the potential to level asymmetric power relations and lead to meaningful dialogue. The final section shows how this Benedictine pedagogy of community is enacted in one specific Spanish language learning immersion that takes place at a sister Benedictine Monastery abroad, Our Lady of Angels, in Cuernavaca, Mexico. It also provides a small sample of seven students’ responses to two critical questions from a survey questionnaire. Even though this small qualitative sample is not generalizable, it helps illuminate how these interactions may lead to the development of cultural sensitivity, of a sense of community, between students and members of this language learning immersion abroad. Responses indicate that students who participated in this program for at least eight weeks exhibit an interest in continuing to interact and collaborate in multicultural communities as well as a willingness to learn the target language beyond this experience.

Temporal fluency and floor/ceiling scoring of intermediate and advanced speech on the ACTFL Spanish Oral Proficiency Interview–computer

The rating of proficiency tests that use the Inter-agency Roundtable (ILR) and American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines claims that each major level is based on hierarchal linguistic functions that require mastery of multidimensional traits in such a way that each level subsumes the levels beneath it. These characteristics are part of what is commonly referred to as floor and ceiling scoring. In this binary approach to scoring that differentiates between sustained performance and linguistic breakdown, raters evaluate many features including vocabulary use, grammatical accuracy, pronunciation, and pragmatics, yet there has been very little empirical validation on the practice of floor/ceiling scoring. This study examined the relationship between temporal oral fluency, prompt type, and proficiency level based on a data set comprised of 147 Oral Proficiency Interview - computer (OPIc) exam responses whose ratings ranged from Intermediate Low to Advanced High [AH]. As speakers progressed in proficiency, they were more fluent. In terms of floor and ceiling scoring, the prompts that elicited speech a level above the sustained level generally resulted in speech that was slower and had more breakdown than the floor-level prompts, though the differences were slight and not significantly different. Thus, temporal fluency features alone are insufficient in floor/ceiling scoring but are likely a contributing feature.

Analisis Buku Ajar MI Berstandar ACTFL

This research reports on the analysis of Arabic textbooks for elementary schools that have been published by the Ministry of Religion of the Republic of Indonesia based on American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) guidelines. This research examined the competencies to be achieved from the practice of using textbooks in teaching Arabic based on the instructional objectives and concept maps included in the textbooks. The results of the study showed that the teaching materials had contained in the Arabic language textbooks for elementary school 1st, 2nd and 3th grade and had reflected ACTFL standards at a low novice level. These textbooks apart from being an authentic learning resource and promoting innovative learning can also be put into practice by teachers with formulated instructional ideas and strategies. The study findings reflect pedagogical discussions about teaching Arabic as a foreign language and allow teachers to build their creativity to practice contextual and transformative learning based on the standards formulated in textbooks.

Identifying the Speaking Proficiency Level of Arabic Learners in Accordance with the International Guidelines of ACTFL for Assessing Proficiency in Foreign Languages

Language is a means of communication among human beings. Such communication among non-native and/or native language users can be facilitated through language learning and teaching. Language education professionals have developed guidelines for teachers and learners to measure the linguistic performance of these two groups. One of the prestigious international frameworks established in the field of foreign language teaching and assessment is the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) proficiency guidelines developed by a team of foreign language education professionals. The Arabic speaking skill, along with listening, is one of the main language skills used to orally communicate with Arabic speakers. Non-native students majoring in Arabic Language and Literature learn the required vocabulary and structures/styles to speak Arabic. But many of them face challenges in applying what they have learned when speaking Arabic. The present study, in particular, attempts to find an answer to the following two questions: What is the proficiency level of undergraduate students of Kharazmi University majoring in Arabic Language and Literature based on ACTFL guidelines for assessing speaking skill? What difficulties do Arabic language majors face in learning Arabic? The statistical sample of the study consisted of 30 undergraduate senior students majoring in Arabic Language and Literature at Kharazmi University, Tehran. To determine the students’ speaking level and discover the reasons for their possible deficiencies, a field (qualitative) research was conducted while adopting a descriptive and inductive approach. The research instruments included both the test and observation. The most prominent finding of the research was that while Arabic students take a total of 12 credits under the courses of Listening and Speaking 1 to 3 as well as Language Lab 1 to 3, they do not achieve a desirable level of speaking skill. There are many reasons for this weakness among which one can point out limited hours and credits allocated to the courses on language skills. The test results in particular revealed that the students did not perform well in the speaking skill. The contributing factors were the lack of confidence in speaking Arabic, fear of making lexical mistakes while speaking, and insufficient daily use of Arabic, among others.

Issues in world language teacher preparation: ACTFL/CAEP standards and oral proficiency

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to provide a review of current research on two of the original ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) research priorities areas, model teacher preparation programs and teacher oral proficiency, as well as a look at future directions for research in these areas. Driven by the call for continued research in the original articles, this article lays the foundation for future research on effective world language (WL) teacher preparation programs. Despite the premise from the original articles and the growth of teacher preparation programs built around the ACTFL/CAEP Standards, further research is necessary to fully realize the effects of teacher's proficiency levels on teacher effectiveness and student outcomes.

World Language Education in an Era of Growing Nationalism

World Language Education in an Era of Growing Nationalism Dieter A. Waldvogel The United States is undergoing a political tug-of-war between globalism and nationalism with world language education caught in the middle of this sociopolitical debate. The current political trend towards nationalism and isolationism is rendering world language education vulnerable to further cuts such as the 5.3 percent decline in language courses offered at colleges and universities between 2013 and 2016 as reported in 2019 by the Modern Language Association (MLA) (Johnson 2019). It is vital for the American people in general, and language educators and program administrators in particular, to be aware of the devastating effects that these political and social trends are having on second and world language (L2) programs in academic institutions nationwide. In the 1970s and 1980s, foreign investments, trade, and immigration played a major role in the expansion of the US economy. Over the past fifty years, the world has seen the United States internationalizing its labor market and its economy. American companies are expanding their footprint worldwide to capture a greater market share outside its borders as the global economy has become more interconnected. In turn, this globalization has been driving a demand to improve the overall global competence of Americans. In today’s increasingly competitive global economy, a workforce with more market-relevant L2 skills is a strategic economic asset for the United States (Wiley et al. 2012). Merriam-Webster defines globalism as a national policy of treating the whole world as a proper sphere for political influence (“Globalism”). Another often cited definition is from Giddens (1990), who defined globalism as “the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa (64). Over the past three decades, globalism has been propelled by improvements in telecommunications, high-speed internet, satellite technology, rapid transit, cloud computing, digital streaming, and even artificial intelligence—the world as we know it has become a much smaller place. We can now send an instant message to friends and family in Europe, Asia or South America and expect a reply within minutes, if not seconds. We can conduct videoconferences with peers located around the world; businesses can promote and sell their products almost instantly around the world using e-commerce services, and students in small rural communities in the United States can enroll in online courses offered by the University of Salamanca in Spain or the University of Porto in Portugal to name just two institutions with online programs open to international students. Recent free trade and multilateral agreements have revolutionized commerce globally. In addition to the free flow of goods and services, the mass movement or migration of people between countries and across continents has become a more common phenomenon and a major factor in the globalization of the world’s economy. According to Stroud et al. (2018) roughly 258 million people or four percent of the world’s population lives outside their country of birth, and the World Migration Report 2018 (International Organization for Migration 2017) predicts this number will increase to 405 million by 2050. The United States alone had roughly 45 million foreign-born residents in 2018 according to the Migration Policy Institute (Batalova et al. 2020). This massive increase [End Page 37] in mobility, transnationalism, and free-market capitalism has created a large demand for a workforce with world language skills and cross-cultural competence, in other words, with the ability to understand and effectively engage people from different nations and cultures. The results from a 2019 survey of 1,200 US employers conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), highlight the dire need for language skills other than English in the US workplace and the negative impact that this shortage of multilingual workers is having on the US economy. According to the survey, 9 out of 10 US employers rely on employees with language skills other than English; 1 in 3 language-dependent US employers report a language skills gap, and 1 in 4 report losing business due to a lack of language...

Backward Design for LSP: Domain Analysis as a Consistent Research Framework for a Necessarily Decentralized Field

This conceptual article examines current approaches to languages for specific purposes (LSP) course design, including the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) backward design model and needs assessments, then explains domain analysis and its history before proceeding with a “how-to” for using domain analysis in backward design for LSP. The authors walk through the process of conducting research using the domain analysis framework that leads to the development of real-world proficiency targets that can be systematically assessed. Once summative proficiency tasks and tests are developed, evidence-centered curricular (re)design can take place. Throughout, the authors will provide illustrative examples from two larger research projects on Spanish for social work and legal Spanish.

Line, please? An analysis of the rehearsed speech characteristics of native Korean speakers on the English Oral Proficiency Interview\u2014Computer (OPIc)

Two assumptions of speaking proficiency tests are that the speech produced is spontaneous and the the scores on those tests predict what examinees can do in real-world communicative situations. Therefore, when examinees memorize scripts for their oral responses, the validity of the score interpretation is threatened. While the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Proficiency Guidelines identify rehearsed content as a major hindrance to interviewees being rated above Novice High, many examinees still prepare for speaking tests by memorizing and rehearsing scripts hoping these "performances" are awarded higher scores. To investigate this phenomenon, researchers screened 300 previously rated Oral Proficiency Interview-computer (OPIc) tests and found 39 examinees who had at least one response that had been tagged as rehearsed. Each examinee’s responses were then transcribed, and the spontaneous and rehearsed tasks were compared. Temporal fluency articulation rates differed significantly between the spontaneous and rehearsed segments; however, the strongest evidence of memorization lay in the transcriptions and the patterns that emerged within and across interviews. Test developers, therefore, need to be vigilant in creating scoring guidelines for rehearsed content.

Oral Language Proficiency in Distance English-Language Learning


 Online learning environments are changing the landscape of education, with evidence supporting their efficacy (Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia, & Jones, 2009). However, research that focuses entirely on online distance English-language programs is sparse, especially in regards to oral proficiency. The purpose of this study is to investigate the efficacy of an online distance-learning program in helping students develop oral English-language proficiency as they prepare to attend a university in the United States. 
 
 The curriculum for the distance-learning program was built upon Moore’s (1993) transactional distance theory, with an emphasis on interpersonal dialogue as a key tool in promoting oral proficiency. Students participated in synchronous and asynchronous interaction with fellow students, tutors, and their instructors. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) computer-assisted Oral Proficiency Interview (OPIc) provided the pretest and posttest measures for this study. To supplement this data, course surveys provided information concerning student opinions of course activities. OPIc results showed that students made significant gains in their oral proficiency from pretest to posttest. In surveys, students rated interaction with other tutors and teachers as instrumental in assisting them with their language learning, but rated interaction with their peers as less helpful. 

The practicability of proverbs in teaching Arabic language and culture

This empirical case study has two objectives. First, it reports on the pedagogical applicability and practicability of proverbs in teaching Arabic language and culture at the novice level and up according to guidelines of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Second, it examines how the use of proverbs in teaching inspires active learning and stimulates students’ intercultural perception. The empirical activities presented in this article demonstrate that the constructive integration of Arabic proverbs in language teaching helps improve learners’ linguistic competency, intercultural awareness, and cross-cultural communication. The article also shows that proverbs constitute an important repository of authentic materials that can provide educators with new instructional ideas and strategies in teaching Arabic as a foreign or second language. The study’s findings also mirror ongoing pedagogical discussions about teaching Arabic as a foreign and strategic language. Such is the case with approaches and theories, textbooks, the role of culture in learning, the use of authentic materials, and Arabic diglossic disposition.

Food for Thought: Building Socially Conscious Readers and Writers through Exploring Eating Practices and Sustainability Perspectives

Food for Thought: Building Socially Conscious Readers and Writers through Exploring Eating Practices and Sustainability Perspectives Silvia Rodríguez Sabater Globalization in the twenty-first century has created new and interconnected challenges for everyone, especially for the current generation of students in our classrooms. Language learning can be part of the solution, by opening students’ eyes to the social, cultural, economic, and environmental issues around the world. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has been advocating for the inclusion of the 5 Cs—Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities—since 1996. More recently, the publication of Words and Actions: Teaching Languages through the Lens of Social Justice (Glynn et al. 2014), and second edition in 2018, shed more light on how to teach these challenging topics. Recently, the Modern Language Association (MLA) has called for proposals on the “greening” of the Spanish curriculum for their 2020 convention. University students are and will be faced with complex twenty-first-century economic problems, such as food deserts, costs of industrial agriculture, organic regulations and market demand, sustainable food systems, value of traditional ecological knowledge, and regulations and business ethics related to food. These economic problems cannot be separated from social problems, such as political implications from food insecurity, loss of traditional ecological knowledge around food issues, food ethics, GMO vs. non-GMO debates, nutrition issues, speciesism in agriculture, policy, and regulations around food. In addition to the varied economic dimensions, environmental problems require creative answers to tackle the impact of industrial agriculture, agricultural pollution and runoff, climate crisis and agriculture, and deforestation and agriculture. Immediate solutions are required, and we need to equip our students with the tools to address and solve such real-world problems. In other words, the Spanish language classroom can be a crucial part of the education of globally prepared solutionaries, individuals able to address and solve issues (Weil 2016) and who are sustainability literate because they have the knowledge and skills to advocate for resilient social, economic, and environmental systems. The College of Charleston has made these concerns part of the Quality Enhancement Plan and has encouraged faculty to create courses in all fields of study. 1. The Case of SPAN 313: A Composition Course An intermediate composition section at the College of Charleston was taught in Spring 2019 aimed to build socially conscious readers and writers through exploring eating practices and sustainability perspectives. The course learning outcomes are: 1. sustainability literacy (identify various elements of sustainability in the Spanish-speaking world, key ways to be more sustainable in personal life, and the relationship between social/cultural, economic, and environmental factors); [End Page 155] 2. the development of interpretive reading and listening (understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics related to food practices and sustainability perspectives); 3. the development of presentational writing (present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics related to food practices and sustainability perspectives using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences of readers). The course themes are: 1) food deserts and social justice; 2) diets (Mediterranean diet, plant-based eating, and Mexican gastronomy); 3) habits (milk alternatives, organic produce, local products, drinking straws, and disposable products); 4) traditional agriculture and foods of Latin America (Mesoamerican chinampas and Andean terrazas); and 5) fair trade chocolate and coffee; and 6) cattle raising and deforestation. Students read authentic texts written by Spanish native speakers for members of that culture, and they interpret the texts by identifying key words, the main idea(s), supporting details, and the organizational features and author’s perspective, inferring meaning of unfamiliar words, and identifying cultural and sustainability perspectives. A list of these texts is included in the Appendix. 2. Presentational Writing Activities Students carry out a variety of presentational writing activities such as essays, discussion board posts, summaries of food and sustainability events on campus, and on invited speaker talks to class. The writing activities were structured according to the guidelines for ACTFL proficiency, beginning with writing assignments that asked students to narrate and describe, and then propose and persuade. The assignments increased in length and expectations for vocabulary and...

English Proficiency of Secondary School Teachers in Indonesia

Responding to the growing need to foster communicative abilities in English, schools in Indonesia are driven to make their students proficient in English. However, the majority of English teachers themselves are still not prepared to use English as a means of communication; improving their English proficiency has thus become a matter of concern. As the first phase of a larger-scale study, this present study focuses on teachers’ English proficiency. Data for this study were collected from 149 secondary school teachers of English from five regions (Palembang, Yogyakarta-Sleman, Surabaya, Ruteng, and Maluku). They were asked to self-assess their English proficiencies based on the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) guidelines as well as to do an English Proficiency assessment. Fifty-two of these participants were teachers who were completing an in-service professional education program in Surabaya. The teachers assessed their proficiencies in interpersonal communication, presentational speaking, presentational writing, interpretive listening, and interpretive reading. The English Proficiency assessment includes syllabus-oriented items, General English items, and an essay. The study also conducted in-depth interviews of selected teachers. This study found that there is a gap between the teachers’ perception of their communicative abilities in English and their actual English proficiency.

The Effects of an EFL and L2 Russian Teletandem Class: Student Perceptions of Oral Proficiency Gains

In response to the growing demand for highly proficient foreign language (L2) speakers in professional work settings, scholars and educators have increasingly turned their attention to methods for developing greater fluency in their learners who aspire to such jobs. Engaging in persuasive writing and argumentation has been shown to promote both written and oral proficiency among advanced L2 learners (Brown, 2009). This study focuses on the application of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency guidelines and standards to the design of teletandem courses in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and Russian as a Foreign Language developed to promote Advanced and Superior-level language gains. ACTFL Can-Do statements were used to evaluate learners’ self-reported language gains as a result of participating in the course. The results indicated that such an approach can indeed yield significant perceived gains, especially for spoken language, for all the participants regardless of their target language and home institution.

Using the ACTFL OPIc to assess proficiency and monitor progress in a tertiary foreign languages program

Language tests are useful for many purposes, including monitoring language learning progress and evaluating language programs. This study investigated the interpretations and usefulness of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview – Computer (OPIc) scores across four languages at a large US public university, focusing on (1) the influence of learner backgrounds on oral proficiency variation and growth and (2) patterns in growth across languages. Two years of OPIc score data from 814 students studying Chinese ( n = 143), French ( n = 251), Spanish ( n = 374), and Russian ( n = 46) were collected, together with survey data on language learning experiences and motivation. Each participant had two to four OPIc scores. A growth curve analysis using mixed-effect modeling revealed that language learning experience and motivation explained approximately 43% of variation in initial proficiency and 23% of variation in rates of change over time. The target language had no unique effects on initial proficiency or change over time. On average, learners gained roughly one-third of an ACTFL sublevel per semester of study (while controlling for differences in their backgrounds). Findings are informative for appropriate interpretations and uses of OPIc scores in tertiary educational settings, but also question individual growth-tracking suitability on a semester-by-semester basis.

Stories of engagement: Pre-service language teachers negotiate intercultural citizenship in a community-based English language program

The position statement on global competence by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) emphasizes the need for increased participation ‘in multilingual communities at home and abroad’, and for deeper engagement with languages and cultures (ACTFL, 2014). In response, language teacher preparation programs have sought to increase opportunities for ‘cosmopolitan practice’ (Canagarajah, 2013; Guilherme, 2007). Employing Byram’s (2008) construct of intercultural citizenship, this article explores the potential of service-learning, a sub-set of experiential learning, as such an opportunity. Several studies have established the positive impact of service-learning on teachers’ cultural awareness, yet contact among communities does not necessarily result in engagement (De Leon, 2014; Haddix, 2015). This qualitative study explores the reported experiences of thirty pre-service language teachers and ten linguistically diverse families who participated in an English-focused service-learning project. The analysis outlines how pre-service teachers negotiate intercultural encounters in this program, which we view as a ‘contact zone’ (Pratt, 1991), a zone of possibilities for engagement, leading to action. We discuss the extent to which emerging intercultural citizenship experiences can be transformative (Byram, 2008), and suggest implications for practice.