As we enter the highest testing season of the year, this three-part series is focused on tips for success with each of the components of the AAPPL. This month’s focus is the Interpersonal Listening and Speaking (ILS) component. The ILS portion of the AAPPL tests your ability to have a conversation with someone. Here are […]
Continue readingThe Bilingual Teacher Shortage: A Challenge and an Opportunity
The demand for bilingual education in the United States continues to grow. Even though the country has become more linguistically and culturally diverse due to demographic changes and the evolving conditions in the U.S. marketplace, more than half of the states are facing a bilingual teacher shortage which poses potential issues with the future of […]
Continue readingAdvocating for Multilingualism and Language Education: 2023 Language Advocacy Days
On February 8-10, a few of LTI’s colleagues had the privilege of participating in the JNCL-NCLIS Language Advocacy Days. This annual event, delivered virtually, brings language educators, students, and leaders together to discuss issues surrounding language education and to advocate for multilingualism and quality language education. Participating in this event was an incredibly inspiring experience. […]
Continue readingTips for Success on the AAPPL, Part 1: Presentational Writing
As we enter the highest testing season of the year, this three-part series is focused on tips for success with each of the components of the AAPPL. This month’s focus is the Presentational Writing (PW) component. Student Tips for Success on the PW The PW portion of the AAPPL tests your writing skills. Typically, it […]
Continue readingWhen It Comes to Education, Language Matters
As established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, “parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children” and every child has the right to education. But what happens when students and their parents are immigrants who do not command enough English […]
Continue readingGeneration Z Students in the Language Classroom
Today’s classrooms are full of students from a cohort referred to as Generation Z or Gen Z. Understanding the characteristics of students can be an important tool for an effective teacher. The good news for language teachers is that there are several ways to capitalize on Gen Z characteristics to prompt growth in your language […]
Continue readingLaying the Groundwork for AAPPL Testing to Start the Year
Ready or not, the start of a new school year is here. As language teachers launch their courses, this can be a great time to set the tone for a path towards the Seal of Biliteracy–even if AAPPL testing won’t occur for months (or years) for your students. Beginning the journey toward language development with […]
Continue readingWe did the test. Now what? Part 3: Differentiating Your Focus
Over the last two blog posts, I have looked at student scores by grade over the years of 2019-2022 and then compared the scores of my students to the school’s average scores. Today, I want to dig into differentiating your focus. Read –> We did the test. Now what? Part 1: Looking at yearly performance […]
Continue readingValidating Proficiency Benchmarks at a US Military Academy
By Pete Swanson, PhD, and Jean W. LeLoup, PhD, USAFA Introduction Some would say communicative Language Teaching approaches have helped shift the paradigm of world language teaching and learning. Proficiency testing has now been prioritized where program coordinators and others set proficiency benchmarks for language learners to achieve. Unfortunately, proficiency testing can be costly and […]
Continue readingWe did the test. Now what? Part 2: Year Over Year Comparisons and Data Analysis.
In my previous article, I took a high-level look at my 11th and 12th graders over three years (2019-2022). In this post, we’ll dig in a bit on the data analysis, or what I did as I looked at the data from AAPPL reporting tool. I started by looking at the top performance by grade […]
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