Group items tagged

"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"

"Report from 2011 Conference on "The Elements of Proficiency: An Emerging Consensus for Language Assessment and Instruction." This year's goals were to help practitioners all over the world to understand the essential elements of proficiency and how it is assessed, to better understand both the ACTFL and CEFR systems and how they relate to proficiency and its assessment, and to understand their implications for teaching and learning, curriculum and materials development, and thereby to improve both systems and their assessment instruments."

The Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP), a criterion-referenced, Web-based assessment tool, measures students' language proficiency at levels ranging from Novice-low to Intermediate-mid. STAMP currently measures reading, writing, and speaking proficiencies in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish. CASLS strives to continually improve STAMP's test design while adding new languages and new levels. STAMP is available through CASLS' partner company, Avant Assessment.

Diane J. Tedick, Editor (The Minnesota Articulation Project). This handbook for teachers was designed to provide world language teachers with the background knowledge, ideas, and resources for implementing proficiency-oriented language instruction and classroom-based performance measures into their curriculum. Tied to the national Standards for Foreign Language Education, the Handbook gives teachers a solid foundation of the principles and practices that are central to standards-based and proficiency-oriented language instruction and assessment. The Handbook gives teachers a wide variety of tasks and activities to use in the classroom along with ideas for adapting these activities for different levels and languages and longer curricular packages.The Handbook was originally created by members of the Minnesota Articulation Project. While the handbook is still available in print through the CARLAmworking paper series most of the handbook is now available online.

Site for French Proficiency Tests.

"The VAC is a series of web-based learning modules that provides teachers with background information, step-by-step guidance, and many practical resources on developing proficiency-based second language assessments for the classroom."

Opportunity for language instructors to participate in piloting new proficiency tests.

"Middlebury College is pleased to announce The Kathryn Davis Fellowships for Peace: Investing in the Study of Critical Languages. These 100 fellowships are made possible by a generous gift from Kathryn Davis, to address today's critical need for increased language proficiency in the United States. The Kathryn Davis Fellowships cover 100% of tuition, room, and board for one summer of summer language study from beginner to graduate levels in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian at the Middlebury College Language Schools. The Davis Fellowships are merit-based and intended for exceptionally qualified individuals with demonstrated interest in one or more of the following areas: international, global, or area studies; international politics and economics; peace and security studies; and/or conflict resolution. Individuals in other fields, including working professionals, are encouraged to apply if their field of expertise requires them to study one of the critical languages listed above."

Whether you're administering an ESL entry exam, evaluating the language and cultural skills of an offshore customer service representative, managing executive candidate assessments, conducting foreign language proficiency tests to students studying abroad, or teaching languages to students of ANY age, OWL Testing Software can simplify and expedite test authoring, administration, and scoring in ways you never thought possible. What's more, no technical or programming skills are required.

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.

ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) have served as a roadmap since 1998 for improved teaching and learning by educators. ISTE standards for students, teachers, and administrators help to measure proficiency and set aspirational goals for the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to succeed in today's Digital Age. Our proven leadership in developing these benchmarks and providing guidance in implementing them has resulted in broad adoption of the ISTE standards in the U.S. and in several countries. In June 2008, ISTE released the next generation of NETS for Teachers, which focuses on "using technology to learn and teach."

The American Councils Advanced Russian Language and Area Studies Program (RLASP) serves both graduate and undergraduate students. The academic program is designed to improve participants' oral, listening, reading, and writing proficiency in Russian language and to develop their knowledge of Russian history, politics, culture, and society. The academic year, semester, and summer programs provide approximately twenty hours per week of in-class instruction in Russian grammar, phonetics, conversation, and cultural studies at Moscow International University, the Russian State Pedagogical University (Gertsen Institute) in St. Petersburg, and the KORA Center for Russian Language in Vladimir. One day per week of the academic program is set aside for local cultural excursions.

The French Heritage Language Program was created in 2005 by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and received additional support from the Alfred & Jane Ross Foundation. It is designed to support and enrich the teaching and learning of French language, literature, and culture for students of Francophone background enrolled in New York City public schools. The primary objectives of the program are to help these students develop proficiency in French (reading comprehension, writing, oral expression and other literacy skills), and keep a connection to their respective cultures and identities, while increasing their opportunities for success in their new environment. Through university partnerships, this project also hopes to contribute to scholarly research in the field of heritage language learning. As a pilot program, it is a place for pedagogical and methodological exploration, and a way to build new partnerships. We seek to develop curriculum models that can be replicated and adapted in other cities in the United States, in France as well as in other countries. The French Heritage Language Program works closely with the Internationals Network for Public Schools, which includes nine high schools for new immigrants in New York City and one in Oakland, California, all working at the development of models for global education.

"ANTWERP CALL 2010: Motivation and beyond 18-20 August 2010 The editor, associate editors and editorial board of the CALL Journal extend a cordial invitation to attend Antwerp CALL 2010, the XIVth International CALL Research Conference. Keynote speakers Antonie Alm (University of Otago, New Zealand), Maarten Vansteenkiste (Ghent University, Belgium) and Ema Ushioda (Warwick University, United Kingdom) will provide an overview of literature on motivation, an introduction to Self-Determination Theory and a presentation of the L2 SELF model. You are hereby invited to present your current CALL activities, highlighting aspects such as: * the impact of ICT on motivation; * designing for motivation; * the role of ICT in the analysis of motivation; * the relationship between motivation and proficiency level; * learning styles; * anxiety; * technophobia/technophilia; * self-models; * teacher motivation."

"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."