This volume comprises of chapters that deal with language proficiency relating to a wide range of language program issues including curriculum, assessment, learners and instructors, and skill development. The chapters cover various aspects of a broad-based proficiency initiative, focusing on numerous aspects of foreign language learning, including how skills develop, how assessments can inform curriculum, how learners and instructors view proficiency and proficiency assessment, and how individual use of technology furthers language learning. The concluding chapter points the way forward for issues and questions that need to be addressed.
This volume comprises of chapters that deal with language proficiency relating to a wide range of language program issues including curriculum, assessment, learners and instructors, and skill development. The chapters cover various aspects of a broad-based proficiency initiative, focusing on numerous aspects of foreign language learning, including how skills develop, how assessments can inform curriculum, how learners and instructors view proficiency and proficiency assessment, and how individual use of technology furthers language learning. The concluding chapter points the way forward for issues and questions that need to be addressed.
International Education and Foreign Languages reviews the Department of Education's Title VI and Fulbright-Hays Programs, which provide higher education funding for international education and foreign language programs. This book offers a timely look at issues that are increasingly important in an interconnected world. It discusses the effect of the nation's lack of expertise in foreign languages and cultural knowledge on national security and global competitiveness and it describes the challenges faced by the U.S. educational system and the federal government in trying to address those needs. The book also examines the federal government's recent proposal to create a new National Security Language Initiative, the role of the Department of Education, and current efforts to hold higher education programs accountable. This book provides information and recommendations that can help universities, educators, and policy makers establish a system of foreign language and international education that is ready to respond to new and unanticipated challenges around the world.
This book presents an in‐depth study of assessment innovation and its impact on teaching and learning. The context is New Zealand, and the focus is additional languages other than English and the recent introduction of a radical new assessment of students’ spoken proficiency, called interact. The book crosses the traditional theoretical and methodological boundaries associated with language testing research, which focuses on assessment performance, and presents an alternative approach where stakeholders become the centre of interest. It advances our understanding of how assessment innovation impacts on two key groups - teachers and students in schools - based on data collected from a substantial two‐year research project. It presents an account of these stakeholders’ perceptions of the validity and usefulness of the new assessment in comparison with the more traditional test that it has replaced.Assessing Foreign Language Students' Spoken Proficiency makes an outstanding and original contribution to the field of second and foreign language teaching, providing a theory and research-based account of the development of a learner-centred approach to oral proficiency assessment. It is an important resource for teachers and teacher educators as well as assessment and curriculum specialists worldwide. It deserves to be widely read.
Foreign language teaching in America today falls into three distinct fields of influence and interest: public and private schools, college and other post-secondary programs, and courses for adult learners. At a time when academics and instructors in each of these fields seek to answer similar questions, too few published resources recognize and address the parallels among them. In response, Foreign Language Education in America is an edited book with contributions that represent the diversity in foreign language education today, including perspectives from elementary, middle schools, high schools, university-level courses, summer programs, federal government, and international learning. This is a practical guide to the state of the field that fills a much-needed gap for scholars, researchers, administrators, and practitioners who are looking for a resource that describes effective practices across the field.
The monumental impact of globalization on the higher education sector has placed the English language skills of tertiary students firmly under the spotlight. This book addresses the inherent issues faced by: a growing band of transnational students, lecturers across all disciplines who are charged with delivering the courses, and universities in both English-speaking nations and those where English is the primary medium of instruction. The underpinning tenets of this pivotal book are that English language acquisition is central to academic success, and that this requires continuous and systematic development throughout the course of study. Steeped in empirical research, yet conveyed in a concise, highly accessible form, the book acknowledges that there is no 'one-size-fits-all' solution. Instead, it proposes a variety of constructive approaches to developing English language proficiency at the face-to-face lecturing level, as well as frameworks for pedagogical planning at an institutional level. English Language Standards in Higher Education is the quintessential resource for academics, language policymakers, researchers, and senior administrators to ensure the English language proficiency of students is not only present at the time of entry, but upheld and enhanced throughout their tertiary studies, in preparation for life beyond.
In February 1992, the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), in Washington, D.C., convened a 2-day roundtable meeting of education leaders with expertise in foreign language education and community college teaching and administration in order to formulate a foreign language education policy statement for AACC. This report presents the results of the roundtable. Following a preface by David R. Pierce, and a foreword by James Herbert, the "AACC Foreign Language Education Policy Statement" is offered, underscoring the critical responsibility that community colleges have in meeting the nation's new need for citizens who can function in a multi-linguistic world. The statement also details recommendations to community college leaders related to making foreign language education a priority; and strengthening related programs, faculty development efforts, and articulation agreements. Next, the following roundtable background papers are presented: (1) "Foreign Language Education at Community Colleges" by David A. Berry; (2) "Making the Most of the Articulation Process," by Fe Pittman Brittain; (3) "Uses of Technology To Teach Foreign Languages at Community Colleges," by John Underwood; (4) "Foreign Language Instruction Across the Curriculum: A Strategy and Model," by Joyce S. Tsunoda; and (5) "Proficiency Goals and Teaching of Literature in the Foreign Language Classroom," by Bette G. Hirsch and Chantal P. Thompson. Finally, a directory of participants, along with selected quotes from several participants is provided. (MAB)
Language teaching approaches, methods and procedures are constantly undergoing reassessment. New ideas keep emerging as the growing complexity of the means of communication and the opportunities created by technology put language skills to new uses. In addition, the political, social and economic impact of globalisation, the new demands of the labour market that result from it, the pursuit of competitiveness, the challenges of intercultural communication and the diversification of culture have opened new perspectives on the central role that foreign languages have come to play in the development of contemporary societies. This book provides an insight into the latest developments in the field and discusses the new trends in foreign language teaching in four major areas, namely methods and approaches, teacher training, innovation in the classroom, and evaluation and assessment.
This volume reports on innovative, useful evaluation work conducted within U.S. college foreign language programs. Each case is reported by program-internal educators, who walk readers through critical steps, from identifying evaluation uses, users, and questions, to designing methods, interpreting findings, and taking actions.
