Note: This post has been updated on April 2, 2024 to reflect the updates to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Trust — but verify. We trust that English language learners are gaining something through their studies, but how do we verify what they actually can do with their language skills? We may believe that a job […]
Continue readingGroundbreaking Study from ACTFL Measures Listening and Reading
Fifty years ago, John B. Carroll undertook a landmark study analyzing the oral proficiency of students in language programs in the United States. The often-cited article on his research, “Foreign Language Proficiency Levels Attained by Language Majors Near Graduation from College,” appeared in Foreign Language Annals in 1967—the first year of the journal’s publication. The impact on […]
Continue readingUsing Real-World Tasks to Assess Student Performance
Aimee Mack came to a quick realization last spring as she and colleagues pored over Connecticut’s new teacher evaluation system: Their jobs would depend on being able to share evidence of their language learners’ growth with the entire school community. “We knew that as a department we were going to be looking at data as […]
Continue reading