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Curriculum and the New Teacher page 1

The purpose of Modern Language teaching is the development of communicative proficiency. Language proficiency is the ability to use language for purposeful communication. Proficiency describes what students are able to do with language using the skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, viewing, and showing. Participating in class discussions, reading literature, playing educational games, giving oral presentations, or watching a video of a news report are examples of purposeful communication in an educational setting. Language proficiency should not be confused with achievement. Achievement, which is also important for students, looks only for students to develop mastery of the content of instruction such as grammar and vocabulary in a particular course. An emphasis on developing proficiency in LOTE classrooms, however, prepares students to use language in practical and meaningful ways in addition to mastering the content necessary for such communication to take place. Achievement is a part of gaining proficiency. Teachers continuously need to move students beyond just learning the elements of language to using them proficiently for purposeful communication. Language proficiency is not developed in a strict linear progression, a progression of equal-sized blocks of material learned and tested. Rather, language proficiency develops when practice is guided repeatedly over time to help students gain confidence and fluency in different language functions. Teachers plan classroom activities to help students get closer and closer to authentic use of language structures and vocabulary, knowing that student's experimentation with language will falter as structured support (such as written sheets to guide pair work is removed, but will then progress again as students stretch to creatively apply their language tools. In this section, key Progress Checkpoints along the path of proficiency are described. These checkpoints cannot be precisely equated with year-long courses, since experience makes clear that students do not neatly reach a new checkpoint at the end of each school year. The pathway is constant, but the time it takes each student to reach each checkpoint is not. These Progress Checkpoints help guide the teacher and students to know first the goals for designing developmental activities and second the signs showing that students are reaching a given checkpoint. In this way, the Progress Checkpoints will guide curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The specified Progress Checkpoints in the TEKS for LOTE represent different learning stages also known as proficiency levels (novice, intermediate and advanced). An inverted triangle is often used to show that as students advance from Progress Checkpoint to Progress Checkpoint, the amount of time and practice needed to reach the next stage increases. A student can move relatively quickly through the early stage of mimicking memorized words and phrases, a stage that is limited, controlled, and comfortable. To move into later stages, characterized by flexible, challenging, and creative use of language, requires longer periods of practice and increasingly meaningful volume of experiences. Getting proficiency is a process that requires repeated exposure and opportunities to practice new language functions, vocabulary, and structures to receive feedback; and to use skills in increasingly sophisticated contexts. A topic introduced at one level might reappear in the next as a challenge in a new context; learners reach for the next level as they begin to control the tasks of the present level. "Mastery" does not come two or three weeks after material is introduced, but rather after the student has had many opportunities to practice the material in meaningful ways. In addition, students do not "wake up" one day having changed Progress Checkpoints, Instead, they progress toward the next Progress Checkpoint by showing increasing control over and consistency in the use of the language proficiency characteristics at the next checkpoint. Accuracy is the degree to which communication is structurally correct and culturally appropriate (The College Board, 1996). In real-life situations, communication occurs without complete structural precision, that is, grammar mistakes do not necessarily equate to lack of communication. However, a high degree of accuracy, including communicating in a socially and culturally appropriate manner, is very important to achieving high levels of proficiency. At different levels of proficiency students exhibit different degrees of accuracy. Novices, for example, may repeat memorized phrases with nearly perfect grammar and pronunciation. As they begin to combine these learned phrases in an effort to build more creative ones, accuracy initially declines. Temporary fluctuations in accuracy normally accompany increases in skill development. As students grow more secure in their understanding of another culture, their ability to behave in culturally appropriate ways increases. The overall goal is to gradually use and mesh cultural and linguistic skills with increasing accuracy in order to obtain a high level of language proficiency.   The Inverted Triangle of Language Development: Progress Checkpoints and Proficiency Levels

Progress Checkpoints: Modern and Classical Languages

Progress Checkpoints describe what students should know and be able to do at the end of each level of proficiency. The following descriptions help students, teachers, and parents know how well students should be able to perform the The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Languages Other Than English. These Progress Checkpoints provide an overall view of the expectations for student performance at critical points along the language learning continuum. As students progress, they may experiment with and show some ability in language characteristics normally beyond their proficiency level; however, for most students their consistent and independent use of the language follows the progression from novice, through intermediate, to advanced. Progress Checkpoints will influence the design of class activities and assessment by providing a broad focus for the evaluation of student work.

Novice Levels I-II

Using age-appropriate activities, students develop the ability to perform the tasks of the novice language learner.

The novice language learner, when dealing with familiar topics, should:

understand short utterances when listening and respond orally with learned material; produce learned words, phrases, and sentences when speaking and writing; detect main ideas in familiar material when listening and reading; make lists, copy accurately, and write from dictation; recognize the importance of communicating in a culturally appropriate manner; and recognize the importance of acquiring accuracy of expression by knowing the components of language, including grammar.

Students of classical languages use the skills of listening, speaking and writing to reinforce the skill of reading. For an adaptation of these Progress Checkpoints for classical languages, click the arrow, Appendix D.

Intermediate Levels III-IV

Using age-appropriate activities, students expand their abilities to perform novice tasks and develop their ability to perform the tasks of the intermediate language learner.

The intermediate language learner, when dealing with everyday topics, should:

Participate in simple face-to-face communication; create statements and questions to communicate independently when speaking and writing; understand main ideas and some details of material on familiar topics when listening and reading; understand simple statements and questions when listening and reading; meet limited practical and social writing needs; use knowledge of the culture in development of communication skills; use knowledge of the components of language, including grammar, to increase accuracy of expression; and cope successfully in straightforward social and survival situations

In survival situations, students can satisfy basic needs within another culture.

In classical languages, the skills of listening, speaking, and writing are used in Level III to reinforce the skill of reading. Students of classical languages use skills of listening, speaking, and writing to reinforce the skill of reading. Click the arrow,see appendix D, for an adaptation of these checkpoints for classical languages.

Advanced Levels V-VII

Using age-appropriate activities, students master novice tasks, expand their ability to perform intermediate tasks, and develop their ability to perform the tasks of the advance language learner.

The advanced language learner of modern languages, when dealing with events of the concrete world, should:

Participate fully in casual conversations in culturally appropriate ways; explain, narrate, and describe in past, present, and future time when speaking and writing; understand main ideas and most details of material on a variety of topics when listening and reading; write coherent paragraphs; cope successfully in problematic social and survival situations; achieve an acceptable level of accuracy of expression by using knowledge of language components, including grammar; and apply knowledge of culture when communicating.

Advanced Levels V-VII Classical Languages

The advanced language learner of classical languages reads and comprehends authentic texts of prose and poetry of selected authors. The skills of listening, speaking, and writing are used to reinforce the skill of reading. Students of classical languages may reach advanced proficiency in reading during Level IV. (A student who completes a College Board Advanced Placement course or the International Baccalaureate in Latin should reach advanced proficiency in reading during Level IV.) For an adaptation of the Progress Checkpoints for classical languages, click the arrow, Appendix D.

Sample Grade Level Activities for Progress Checkpoints

These grade level activities provide a glimpse of what an observer might see happening in LOTE classrooms. As beginning language students try to achieve the knowledge and skills described in the Progress Checkpoints, they will show their achievement in different ways that are age-appropriate and matched to their own cognitive development. The following sample activities provide examples of teaching strategies that are focused on the TEKS for LOTE. These activities could be applied to different Program Goals of the TEKS for LOTE, blending the practice of communication skills with the context of learning culture, seeking interdisciplinary connections, making comparisons, and applying these skills in community settings.

Sample Novice Activities

Novice learners use words, phrases, and expressions they have learned on basic every day topics.

Elementary

Here are some examples of how novice learners in elementary school use the language. These learners may:

introduce themselves and answer questions about their age, where they live, and the people in their families talk about favorite toys, pets, and activities listen to and comprehend simple story books play games on the playground put on puppet shows use learned words and phrases to list and write short sentences label articles in the classroom, colors on the spectrum, and places on maps where the language is used sing songs and perform dances from the culture

Middle School and High School

Here are some examples of how novice learners in middle school and high school use the language. These learners may:

communicate about topics appropriate to their age, such as school schedules communicate while engaging in organized sport conduct a survey on students' favorite entertainers exchange information about self, family, and school life with students from the culture via simple notes, e-mail, or audio and video tapes dramatize a typical shopping experience using culturally appropriate behavior read (or scan) the employment section of a newspaper in the language being studied and then list job opportunities where knowledge of more than one language is useful collect and display newspaper clippings concerning political, economic, and / or cultural topics and give the main idea

Sample Intermediate Activities

Intermediate learners create sentences to ask and answer questions, to communicate about personal history or answer questions, to communicate about personal history or leisure activities, and to meet basic survival needs.

Middle School and High School

Here are some examples of how intermediate learners in middle school and high school use the language. These learners may:

demonstrate and narrate a simple scientific experiment, such as the use of magnets use mathematical skills to indicate the cost of preparing a dinner in the culture or cultures being studied. write and present a skit about shopping expedition in the culture being studied read descriptions of several jobs and then create mock résumés to include the applications for a job write a summary putting narrative events in sequence after viewing a familiar video or film develop and present a plan for a real or imaginary trip to a place where the language studied is used, including an itinerary, hotel accommodations, and tours research opportunities in higher education in countries outside the U.S. where the language is used

Sample Advanced Activities

Middle School and High School

Here are some examples of how advanced learners in middle school and high school use the language. These learners may:

initiate, sustain, and close conversations read a novel, summarize its plot, and analyze character's motivations and conflicts view or listen to a news report from a country about an event of international importance and compare and contrast coverage of the same event in the local media research and give a presentation about leading environmental concerns in a country where the language is spoken

Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Languages Other Than English

Introduction

A Texas Framework for Languages Other Than English is inextricably tied to the Texas state student content and performance standards, The Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills for Languages Other Than English (TEKS for LOTE.)

The standards describe what all students should know and be able to do in the LOTE discipline. The TEKS for LOTE are organized around five "knowledge and skills:, Program Goals: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities.

SEDL's Project ExCELL, the organization responsible for coordinating the development of TEKS for LOTE for State Board of Education consideration, owes a debt of gratitude to the National Standards Project in Foreign Language Learning: Preparing for the 21st Century. The five C's paradigm and many of the guiding principles found in the TEKS for LOTE have much in common with the national document, which is grounded in research on how students acquire a second language and represents a consensus across the foreign language profession about what students should know and do in a language.

Interrelationship of the Five Program Goals

The five Program Goals form the foundation of current LOTE programs. The first goal, Communication, is the vehicle by which students reach the other four goals, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities. In language classrooms, students are always communicating. Communication is the vehicle students use to become linguistically proficient. What students communicate about (topics, themes, literature, etc.) and in what contexts their communication takes place (in person, in writing, via the Internet, etc.) can be viewed as the content of the LOTE subject areas.

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Rubrics

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Speaking Proficiency Rubric

Student Name:_________________________________

Criteria	Selection	Comments
I. Comprehensibility	0 - 1 - 2	.
II. Language and Vocabulary	0 - 1 - 2	.
III. Pronunciation	0 - 1 - 2	.
IV. Correctness of Language	0 - 1 - 2	.
V. Risk-taking (and effort)	0 - 1 - 2	.
Total speaking points multiply times 10 Total Speaking Score	Comments:	.

Communication 50	accuracy 20	effort on task 20	pronunciation 10	TOTAL
complete, fully comprehensible	accurate on all targeted forms	exceeds all expectations, no English used	No interference with comprehension	.
mostly comprehensible	accurate on most targeted forms	Well focused, no English used	interferes slightly with comprehension	.
Incomplete, only partially comprehensible	accurate on few targeted forms	unfocused, some English	seriously interferes with comprehension	.
Incomprehensible	Inaccurate	little effort, off task, much English	renders comprehension extremely difficult	.
Date:	.	.	.	.
Name(s)	.	.	.	.
Activity:	.	.	.	.

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