Modern Language Proficiency: Can-Do Strategies

Modern Language Proficiency: Can-Do Strategies

by

Harry Grover Tuttle, Ed. D.

Copyright 2014 Harry Grover Tuttle

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Also by Harry Grover Tuttle, Published at Smashwords:

90 Mobile Learning Modern Language Activities

Table of Contents (Subsection names have been abbreviated.)

Introduction

Proficiency and Can-Do Overview

Quotations. Proficiency as Goal. NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements. Can-Do for Curriculum.

Interpersonal Speaking

Importance

Students' Definitions. Survival Proficient Speaking. Emotional Conversations. More Speaking. Input or Output.

ACTFL Quality And Quantity

90% Modification. Paragraph Length Speaking. 20 Sentences Daily. 8 Minutes of Daily Speaking.

Speaking Decisions

Speaking Practice. Grammar to Communication Focus. Mechanical to Spontaneous.

Modern Language Methods-Practical Ideas

Consistency in Learning. Movement. Intensity of Learning. Increased Verbal Interaction. Student Participation Increase. More Frequent Participation. Grammar Transformation

to Spontaneous Speaking. Technology Guidelines.

Strategies for Developing Spontaneous Speaking

Flexible Sentences. Find Someone Who Variations. Scaffolding Through Questions and Answers. Speaking Mats. Visual Context. Extension of Speaking. Verb Variety Increase. Role Play. Paired Speaking.

Oral Assessment

Formative Assessment. Daily Speaking Assessment Sheets. Pre- and Post-Assessment. Proficiency Coupons. Proficiency Certificates. Timed Oral Fluency. Speaking on the Final. Grades and Proficiency. Student Learning Object (SLO). Institutional Assessment. Advocacy Through Proficiency.

Interpretive Listening

Yes/No. Interactive Listening. Information Listening. Actions. Cultural Listening.

Interpretive Reading

Sequencing Slips. True/False. Reading Recall. Reading Comprehension in the Modern Language. Comprehension Techniques. Difficult Comprehension. Purposeful Reading. Graphic Organizers. Authentic Text.

Presentational Writing

Writing Structure. Question Answering. Writing Expansion. Purposeful Writing with Prompts. Visual Story. Online Collective Story.

Culture

Promote Positive Feelings. Critical Culture. Culture as Prompts. Mobile Integration.

Vocabulary

Personally Useful. Critical Conversational Vocabulary. 10 Second Vocabulary Learning.

Visual-Based. Long Vocabulary List.

Grammar

Grammar as Vocabulary. Color Coding. Gestures. Flashcards. Memory Devices. Contrast. Common Forms. PACE Method.

Textbook

Tool. Students' Textbook Dependency. Differences in Textbooks over Years. Beyond the Physical Textbook. QR Code Textbook.

Mobile Devices

Categories. App to Speaking. Communication Activities.

Spontaneous Speaking Language Activities

Activities for All Languages. Speaking Mats. Role Play. Speed Dating/Interviewing. In-depth Speed Dating/Interviewing. Find Someone Who. Spontaneous Speaking. Grammar to Spontaneous Speaking

Conclusion

References

About the Author

Acknowledgments

** ** To the Table of Contents ** **

Introduction

This book contains many different strategies to help your students become proficient in their modern language. I have utilized the NCCSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements as the basis for the proficiencies. In addition, as I have used these strategies for these proficiencies in my classes, I have observed and assessed how well these strategies assist my students and modified the strategies so they become even more effective for my students. These strategies focus, primarily, on the beginning three years of modern language learning which encompass the majority of the students. This book covers all the skills of speaking, listening, reading, writing plus it has sections on the role of vocabulary, grammar, culture, textbooks and mobile devices in the development of these proficiencies. The major emphasis (over half the book) is on speaking.

90% of the book presents practical strategies for implementing the Can-Do statements.

After reading the introduction, you may read the book in any order. You may start with Speaking -ACTFL Quality and Quantity and then jump to Mobile. You may want to search the ebook to find a particular topic such as Authentic Text.

You may consider reading a few strategies within a section and deciding which one you might like to implement. I encourage you to do Action Research to see which strategies best help your students become more proficient in communicating in the target language. In Action Research, students take a pre-test to establish a learning baseline for a specific proficiency, they try a strategy over a period of time, and they take a post-test to discern if they show improvement in that particular proficiency.

This book is based on my blogs, articles, books and conference presentations. About seventy percent of the materials in a revised and updated form comes from either my modern language blog, http://bit.ly/imprml, or my technology in education blog, http://bit.ly/hgtblog. Likewise, I have implemented these strategies in various forms with my students.

During my career, I have found that when I have high expectations for my students' language and I structure their language use, they can achieve those expectations. My sixth grade beginning Spanish students could say ten sentences about themselves, family, and school in spontaneous speaking. In addition, they could carry on a four to five question conversation about a familiar topic in a spontaneous speaking. Their speaking went far beyond beginning language because I believed they could.

I hope that this book will supply you with some new directions for thinking about modern language teaching and learning in terms of the Can-Do statements and, also, will provide you with concrete strategies to implement those ideas in your classroom. The more we focus on how to help students to be proficient in their modern language, the more we are fulfilling our mission as language teachers. For example, when our students invite and make plans with others in the target language (Interpersonal Communication. Novice High I can make plans with others,) we know that they have advanced in their ability to communicate with others. We have helped them be communicators.

** ** To the Table of Contents ** **

Proficiency and Can- Do Overview

Quotation about Learning a Modern Language

Nadine (2012) shares many quotations about the general importance of language.

Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going.‒Rita Mae Brown

Learning a foreign language not only reveals how other societies think and feel, what they have experienced and value, and how they express themselves, it also provides a cultural mirror in which we can more clearly see our own society. ‒ Edward Lee Gorsuch

Those who know nothing of foreign languages know nothing of their own. ‒Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

You can never understand one language until you understand at least two. ‒Geoffrey Willans

To have another language is to possess a second soul. ‒Charlemagne

The limits of my language are the limits of my world. ‒Ludwig Wittgenstein

One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way. ‒Frank Smith

A different language is a different vision of life. -Federico Fellini

If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world. ‒Ludwig Wittgenstein

A man who knows two languages is worth two men. ‒French Proverb

You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once. ‒Czech proverb

Knowledge of languages is the doorway to wisdom. ‒Roger Bacon

One who speaks only one language is one person, but one who speaks two languages is two people. ‒Turkish Proverb

Change your language and you change your thoughts. ‒Karl Albrecht

Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things. ‒Flora Lewis

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. ‒Nelson Mandela

Language is not a genetic gift, it is a social gift. Learning a new language is becoming a member of the club-the community of speakers of that language. ‒Frank Smith

How does your students' modern language use compare to these definitions?

Proficiency as the Goal

Many universities, states, and schools describe their students' learning in terms of language proficiency. For example, All William and Mary students are required to demonstrate proficiency in a foreign language before they graduate (2014). The state of South Carolina has produced a document with proficiency in the title, The 2013 South Carolina Standard for World Language Proficiency (2013). Some states even define their proficiency in terms of ACTFL; according to Georgia Standards.org (2009) by the end of Level II, students will exhibit Novice-Mid level proficiency in speaking and writing and Novice-High level proficiency in listening and reading (ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, 1999). Schools districts such as Brockton Public Schools express that The primary goal of modern foreign language study is communicative proficiency (2010).

Does your school define student learning in terms of proficiency?

NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements

The previous paragraph provides some general statements about language learning. The National Council of State Supervisors of Foreign Language (NCSSFL) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Foreign (ACTFL) produced the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements. The full document can be found by searching ACTFL Can Do or by going to http://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/Can-Do_Statements.pdf. These statements help move modern language teachers from the general levels of teaching to the real world practical levels of learning. The Can-Do Statements state specifically what students will be able to do in their modern language classes. These statements cover Interpersonal Communication, Presentational Speaking, Presentational Writing, Interpretive Listening and Interpretive Reading; they provide specific statements for each area from the Novice through the Distinguished levels.

Teachers will be able to move from the general statements of The students learn a modern language or They learn to be good speakers of the language to a specific learning statement such as They talk about places (Interpersonal Communication. Novice Mid. I can communicate about everyday life. I can talk about places I know.)

These precise statements standardize modern language across the country. Students no longer will say that they covered the first ten chapters in their textbook, that they reached Level II of the language, or that reached their own state's checkpoint A; instead, they will say that they are proficient at the Interpersonal Communication Novice Mid level which has meaning across all of the USA and many countries internationally.

As the teachers think of helping their students achieve the Can-Do Statements, the teachers may refocus what they do in their classrooms and with their textbooks to better meet the Can-Do Statements. The teachers may want to minimize some vocabulary lists and even teach new words and phrases.

For example, the teachers read the Interpersonal Communication Novice Low sub-category of "I can answer a few simple questions:

I can respond to yes/no questions.

I can answer an either/or question.

I can respond to who, what, when and where questions."

As modern language teachers read these statements, they realize that many beginning students can do these tasks so teachers will not adjust their curriculum very much. However, when the teachers get to Interpersonal Communication Novice High, they may find that they will want to add new words or phrases or reinforce some words and phrases if the textbook only has one reference to the words. For example:

"I can make plans with others.

I can accept or reject an invitation to do something or go somewhere.

I can invite and make plans with someone to do something or go somewhere.

I can exchange information about where to go, such as to the store, the movie theatre, a concert, a restaurant, the lab or when to meet."

How well does your language curriculum match the Can-Do Statements?

Can-Do Statements For Curriculum Decisions

The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements provide teachers with a lens to examine classroom learning. Modern language teachers can base the course final exam, unit tests, and quizzes on these statements. For example as teachers analyze the previous year's unit test in terms of the Can-Do Statements, they label the actual proficiency in each section. The teachers can use a shortened form for these proficiencies such