View Content #87
| Contentid | 87 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | Making Proficiency Possible: Assessments, Materials, and Curriculum Tools for Japanese |
| Body | Making Proficiency Possible: Assessments, Materials, and Curriculum Tools for Japanese Carl Falsgraf, Sachiko Kamioka The Proficiency Movement began in the 1980s with the publication of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. Its vision was revolutionary: the purpose of language teaching is to prepare students to communicate meaningful content in realistic situations. Until that time, the purpose of language teaching had been primarily to increase students formal knowledge of grammar and vocabulary in order to read literature. While "proficiency" is the buzzword that everybody uses, in most classrooms the majority time is still spent developing formal knowledge through explanations, drills, or worksheets. The same is true of standards: everybody thinks they are great, but standards-based classrooms are few and far between. Why is there such a gap between what we say and what we do? Although most teachers want to focus on proficiency standards, most lack the time and expertise to develop materials, lesson plans, and assessments and so continue to follow a textbook. So why not focus on writing proficiency-based textbooks? One reason is that it is almost impossible to write a truly proficiency-based textbook. Proficiency means communicating meaningful content in realistic situations. What is meaningful to one student though, often is not meaningful to another (e.g., talking about the four seasons is great in New York, but silly in Hawaii). Also publishers cannot possibly make money creating books for every individual program, so we use the same books regardless of our students needs. This is not to say that textbooks are bad, but rather that teachers need to adapt them to fit their instructional needs. This takes lots of time and training. Another barrier to implementing proficiency standards is the lack of appropriate assessment tools. There is no Monbusho in America that controls the content of tests. So we all make up our own mid-terms and finals the majority of which are based on the textbooks we use. And the easiest items to create and grade are grammar, vocabulary, and kanji. At CASLS, we dont blame teachers for using their time inefficiently. With growing class sizes, who has the time to create special lessons, materials, and tests? Instead, our goal is to make it just as easy to teach proficiency as it is to teach from a textbook. We have created online assessments, materials, and lesson planning tools so that any teacher with an Internet connection can teach to proficiency-based standards. Benchmarks At the core of all these products are Benchmarks. The Benchmarks are based on ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, but are much more specific. This specificity is the key to the whole system. By "digitizing" proficiency, we make the abstract concepts of proficiency concrete and allow assessment items and teaching materials to be stored in a database. Because Benchmarks are consistent with ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and National Standards, teachers can start moving in the right direction without extensive training or time investment. The diagram below shows our four key products and their relations to standards. * This product is not discussed in this presentation. Click here to get more information on Touchstones Modules. Standards-based Measurement of Proficiency (STAMP) Assessment is at the core of a standards-based system. Unless we all use the same measuring stick, how can we ever judge our students fairly and begin to articulate our programs? Imagine two students who come to a university and say, "I studied Japanese for two years and had an A-average." One student had a highly-trained, very demanding teacher who emphasized oral practice and authentic reading in class. The other students teacher focused on culture and had students fold origami, make sushi, and visit Japanese restaurants. Obviously, these two students do not belong in the same class. But this is what happens now because we do not have a common measuring stick. STAMP is designed to be that measuring stick. Click here to |
| Source | Carl Falsgraf, Sachiko Kamioka |
| Inputdate | 2003-04-30 17:23:00 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2003-04-30 17:23:00 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | Not set |
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| Active | 1 |
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