World Languages - Connections Through Proficiency
How many times have you heard (or said yourself): “I took Spanish (Japanese, French, German, etc) in school but I can’t really speak it now?” Many of us went through language programs that focused on performance and left us with knowledge that wasn’t quite functional in the real world.
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL):
Performance = The ability to use language that has been learned and practiced in an instructional setting.
From a teaching perspective, a focus on performance can look like a textbook centered course with lots of memorization of vocabulary and grammar drills and often little time for speaking practice. This is the way that most language classes in public institutions have traditionally been taught. However, research shows that although some performance activities are helpful in the beginning stages of language learning; true language acquisition comes through a focus on proficiency.
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL):
Proficiency = The ability to use language in real world situations in a spontaneous interaction and non-rehearsed context and in a manner acceptable and appropriate to native speakers of the language.
A focus on proficiency can look like students speaking to each other and to the group about real life things, actively listening, reading and writing about aspects of culture, and learning about diverse topics in a fun, kinesthetic and immersive classroom environment.
At Cedarwood Waldorf School, Kumiko Sensei (Japanese teacher) and I, Maestra Michelle (Spanish teacher), both teach using a proficiency based model that is rooted in an understanding of child development and the process of language acquisition.
If you were to peek into a language class at Cedarwood, you might see students standing in a circle, speaking to each other in pairs, small groups, lining up in a spectrum, sharing back out to the full circle, singing in the language, dancing to culturally relative music, playing movement games, reading silently, reading aloud, copying writing, composing written sentences/ paragraphs/ essays, and making presentations. You would see students of all ages very engaged and excited as they realize how many things they can do in the language they are studying.
The key to all of these activities is that, over time, the entire class period becomes an immersive environment where English is not an option because of shared agreements and habits in the classroom. We create a sense of community in the classroom where taking risks and making mistakes are celebrated, and where students feel safe to reach out for meaning and to reach inwards for ways to communicate in the target language.
Perhaps, you have had the experience of living or studying for a time in another country where your first language was not an option. You might have slowly acquired enough language to interact with native speakers and begin to learn about the culture from the inside, rather than about it from the outside. Your proficiency, your ability to communicate in the real-world, and spontaneous situations opened that door to step inside.
The world language program at Cedarwood Waldorf School invites students to move forward on the path to proficiency, opening doors to connection with people and cultures around the globe.
Authored by Michelle Jarvis and Kumiko Sammler