View Content #25156

By Lindsay Marean, InterCom Editor

Imagine: you get to teach a community language class! No administrators or regulations or different-thinking colleagues to make you do anything other than whatever you want with your students. This situation is common in indigenous language revitalization, extracurricular heritage language initiatives, and volunteer-taught classes serving immigrant communities.

Continue to imagine: you get a good response to the posters and announcements you put out, and your first class (basic introductions and greetings) has 20 students. The second class has 25, 15 from the first week and 10 new people (re-teach introductions for the newcomers and start on new phrases at the end of class). The third has 5 from the first week, 5 from the second week, and 5 newcomers (teach introductions for the third time and ask the “veterans” what they want to learn next). Soon your numbers have dwindled to only 4 students who attend regularly; you hear from others that people felt that they weren’t making any progress because you kept re-teaching the same content, or else because the class was moving too fast.

At this point, teachers and programs try lots of strategies: serve a meal in class to entice more students, break into “beginning” and “advanced” groups, offer incentives for regular attendance, play more games, and so on. But what if (cue the Keanu Reeves meme) you incorporate assessment?

For starters, have learners assess their current proficiency. The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements are a good place to start. The process of self-assessment increases learner engagement, which may help with retention. Once you’re aware of the different proficiency levels of your students, you can create more appropriate activities and know to what extent you need to differentiate your instruction. Finally, consideration of Can-Do statements or similar specific language indicators can help you and your students set goals together.

Next, take time each class for students to reflect on growth. This may be a simple “ticket out the door” activity (something I learned, something that was challenging, something I want to learn), a language journal, or a bit of time updating a language portfolio such as CASLS’ LinguaFolio Online. An advanced student won’t worry so much about newcomers slowing down the class if she can see her own progress; the newest student in class won’t feel bad comparing himself to more advanced learners if he can instead compare his own proficiency to what it was a month ago.

Finally, try some large assessments at key parts of your program. For example, Green’s respondents requested a set of Can-Do statements tailored to each of their communities’ indigenous languages to measure when a learner could be considered a “speaker” of a language (Green 2017, p. 79; read the full report to see how proficiency assessment can be integrated throughout interconnected revitalization programs for a variety of purposes). Sʔímlaʔxw and her cohort of language house residents recorded a series of videos at different points on their journey and posted them on YouTube (available at https://youtu.be/KVj3vpCf6JE, https://youtu.be/3DxQb_Lr1rw, and https://youtu.be/O7fFMN-KSa4). She writes, “I did not set out on the path of Indigenous language assessment; I set out as a language learner in search of successful learning strategies.... After much reflection, I came to accept that assessments are one of several second-language acquisition techniques that are critical to the success of Indigenous language programs....” (Sʔímlaʔxw, 2014, p. 150).

World language teachers in traditional classroom settings are used to a context of mandated assessment. When the context doesn’t require assessment of any kind, teachers and planners often leave it out. However, without assessment, learners have a hard time perceiving their progress, teachers struggle to match content with learners’ needs and desires, and programs lack clear evidence of what works. I encourage you to incorporate assessment into your teaching, even if -- especially if -- you don’t need to.

References

Green, Jeremy (2017). Pathways to Creating Onkwehonwehnéha Speakers at Six Nations of The Grand River Territory. Report funded by Six Nations Polytechnic and the Ontario Trillium Foundation. Available at https://www.snpolytechnic.com/sites/default/files/docs/research/pathways_to_creating_speakers_of_onkwehonwehneha_at_six_nations.pdf.

Sʔímlaʔxw, Michele K. Johnson (2014). yaʕ̓tmín cqwəlqwilt nixw, uł nixw, ul nixw, I need to speak more, and more, and more: Okanagan-Colville (Interior Salish) Indigenous second-language learners share our filmed narratives. Language Documentation & Conservation 8, 136-167. Available at https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/4622/1/johnson.pdf.