STANDARD COURSE OF STUDY

• All students can learn and experience success in a second language.
• Students learn in different ways.
• Language acquisition is a lifelong process. For optimum results, students should have the opportunity to engage in a long sequence of study.
• Students acquire proficiency at different rates.
• Students develop the needed skills to be citizens of a global society by learning a second language.
• Students develop some insights into other cultures as well as their own when learning a second language.
• Students are involved in interdisciplinary connections when learning a second language.
• Learning is assessed and reflects the students’ ability to communicate in the target language.

Additionally, reports from Louisiana, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati have pointed to the benefits of language instruction for all children but especially for disadvantaged children and children with average or below average intelligence. In one study, Foreign Language in the Elementary School (FLES) students of average and below average intelligence performed as well as their peers with above average intelligence on oral production and interpersonal communication skills (Rosenbusch, 1995).

Howard Gardner points to seven multiple intelligences (an eighth intelligence has been added to the original seven) which are present in some capacity in all of us and which have the potential to be further developed given the appropriate experiences.

Bernice McCarthy devised the 4Mat’s Learning System to identify the different learning styles and to help teachers recognize and honor their students’ individual learning styles. McCarthy believes that rather than "labeling learners according to their styles; they (teachers) need to help them work for balance and wholeness" (Educational Leadership, March 1997, p. 50).

These theories and others have great implications for foreign language learning. They attest to the importance of teaching to the students’ different learning styles, of reaching all students, and of providing the opportunity for deeper and more thorough learning.

For most learners, language development occurs in a predictable pattern according to a series of stages. For example, students acquire language when the language is meaningful and interesting and when they are in a non-threatening environment.

They first acquire the language through "comprehensible input" (Krashen) which is focused on developing listening comprehension by building on receptive vocabulary. For this reason, learners usually can understand more than they are able to say. Thus, language acquisition begins long before speech production occurs.

As the students’ interaction with the language intensifies, they are able to speak using one or two words or short phrases. They are encouraged to produce the vocabulary they already understand. Speaking results from acquisition and speech emerges naturally, gradually, on its own and in stages. Reading and writing are introduced as extensions and support what students can already understand and say.

At the next stage of language development, students move ahead by using longer phrases and strings of sentences. They recombine the language in different ways and they begin to create with the language. As language development proceeds, students become increasingly able to use the language in a variety of contexts, for a variety of audiences, and for a variety of purposes.

As stated above, language acquisition and development occur in a series of stages. The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) has organized these stages (novice, intermediate, advanced, and superior) in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and more recently in the ACTFL Performance Guidelines which are used to describe the expectations for students at each level of language development. A full description of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines is located in the Appendix.

Figure 1. Levels of Proficiency

The level of proficiency students can attain is closely related to the program goals, to the quality of instruction, and to the amount of time and practice they have with the language. A long sequence of language instruction is likely to produce students who develop higher levels of proficiency than those in a program which starts late and/or which is not sequenced.

Also, in a proficiency-based program, students have different rates of individual learning. One learner may take two years to move from one proficiency level to another, while another may take three or four years.

Furthermore, according to the Research Committee of the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), it is also important to note that students may attain different levels of proficiency according to the language they learn.

The School of Language Studies of the Foreign Service Institute has determined that some languages are considered to be of a higher difficulty level for speakers of English; therefore, they have been grouped in different categories - Spanish, French, and other Romance languages are classified under Group I; German falls in Group II; Russian is listed in Group III and languages such as Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic fall in Group IV. More contact hours will be needed for the languages in Group III and IV to achieve the same level of proficiency than for languages in groups I and II.

Figure 2. Language Groups According to their Level of Difficulty

When we learn one language we open doors to new ways of thinking and doing, believing and communicating, and through the process we learn more about ourselves (The Massachusetts World Languages Curriculum Framework, January 1996).

Students’ openness for other cultures seems to be at an optimum prior to the age of ten. Lambert and Klineberg (1967) note that younger students seem to be more receptive to people who are different from themselves than their older peers.

To study another language and culture is to gain an especially rich preparation for the future. It is difficult to imagine a job, a profession, a career, or a leisure activity in the twenty - first century which will not be enhanced by the ability to communicate efficiently and sensitively with others. While it is impossible to foresee which foreign language will be useful at a later point in life, those who have experienced the process of acquiring a second language have gained language learning skills that make learning another language easier. Possession of the linguistic and cultural insights which come with foreign language study will be a requisite for life as a citizen in the worldwide neighborhood (SFFLL, p. 12).

To study another language and culture increases enormously one’s ability to see connections. Since the content of a foreign language course deals with history, geography, social studies, science, math, and the fine arts, it is easy for students to develop an interdisciplinary perspective at the same time they are gaining intercultural understandings (SFFLL, p. 12).

Once teachers have identified whether the focus of an objective is on content, skill development, performance, or application, they can decide whether the objective lends itself to one or more assessment measures. There are many kinds of assessments available to teachers. These range from the more traditional pen and pencil tests to authentic and alternative assessments including portfolios, journals, logs, performance assessments, self assessments, and peer assessments.

However, no one single assessment can give us all the answers we need about student learning, program effectiveness, and accountability. For this reason, teachers need to give careful attention to the purpose of the assessment as well as to the selection of the tool which is best suited for that purpose.

Assessments can help teachers make decisions about individual students, groups of students, instruction, and program. At any rate, assessment should be an integral and on-going part of the learning process.(For additional information on assessment, refer to the Teacher Companion Document and to the Assessment, Articulation, and Accountability Document available from the NC Department of Public Instruction.)