Group items tagged

"Margaret Malone, Senior Testing Associate at CAL, discusses four key concepts of assessment, describes free online resources that promote assessment literacy among language educators, and explores how these tools can be useful for all stakeholders"

"Helping students of Arabic understand, self-assess, and improve their oral proficiency What is this guide? This guide is designed to help you understand and improve your Arabic oral proficiency by learning about: What oral proficiency is and how it relates to your language learning goals A set of guidelines that can be used to rate your speaking ability The kind of outcomes you can reasonably expect after different amounts of Arabic study"

"In the increasingly interconnected world of the 21st century, Americans must be able to communicate effectively in English and other world languages. Yet while countries around the world are implementing language programs that position their students to become multilingual world citizens, results of a recent national report by the Center for Applied Linguistics (Rhodes & Pufahl, 2010) reveal that opportunities for U.S. students to learn a foreign language have declined.

"Action research can inform teachers about their practice and empower them to take leadership roles in their local teaching contexts. Mills (2003) provides the following definition of action research:" (Donato)

The FLAD is a free, searchable directory of information on nearly 200 tests in over 90 languages. The FLAD serves as a starting point for teachers and educators to search for foreign language assessments. Available information about assessments includes grade and proficiency levels, languages for which each test is available, skills targeted by a test, information about the test's development and the publisher's or developer's contact information for further inquiries.

"Foreign or second language (L2) learning strategies are specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques students use -- often consciously -- to improve their progress in apprehending, internalizing, and using the L2 (Oxford, 1990b). Strategies are the tools for active, self-directed involvement needed for developing L2 communicative ability (O'Malley & Chamot, 1990). Research has repeatedly shown that the conscious, tailored use of such strategies is related to language achievement and proficiency."

"Understanding Assessment: A Guide for Foreign Language Educators is a tutorial on language testing for foreign language educators. It is designed to help new users of the Center for Applied Linguistics' Foreign Language Assessment Directory (FLAD) and it is also an excellent resource for anyone who wants to learn more about language testing."