ORAL
PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT REQUIREMENT
Beginning
spring semester 2004, all French and Spanish majors, double majors,
and teaching licensure candidates are required to do an oral proficiency
assessment EXIT interview with one of the department’s OPI faculty
examiners, before the end of the semester in which they plan to graduate.
Interviewees receive from the department an official letter documenting
the level of proficiency achieved on the ACTFL OPI Scale. Arrangements
for the interview should be made by contacting the Modern Languages
departmental administrative assistant, Ms. Susan Baker, at sbaker@uakron.ed
or by calling 330-972-7486.
All
teaching licensure students currently also are required to do an oral
proficiency assessment ENTRANCE interview, for the purposes of placement.
The department is studying ways of extending this requirement to all
French and Spanish majors and double majors in the future.
The
Department of Modern Languages has set its standards in foreign language
education according to the learner’s needs, the demands of employers
in a local and global economy, and the expectations of the discipline.
In order to meet these needs, demands and expectations, the members
of the department have engaged for the past two years in a substantial
curriculum restructuring. The reorganized curriculum responds to a
nationally recognized standard for language proficiency provided by
the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).
The guidelines for proficiency levels and associated assessments (the
Oral Proficiency Interview) developed by ACTFL have been instrumental
in establishing concrete outcomes for our students in each of our
language courses, in developing teaching materials for each course
taught in the department, and in implementing teaching methodologies
that facilitate the achievement of proficiency goals. The ACTFL guidelines
also provide a means for gauging the outcomes of the foreign language
program at the University of Akron. This assessment aspect is crucial
at a time when accountability and the ability to measure student learning
is an increasingly urgent need for teachers, administrators, legislators,
students and future employers.
In order to be able to certify that our students have achieved national
standards, the department has initiated a major assessment undertaking
focusing on evaluation of the speaking proficiency of foreign language
students, with attention first to majors, double majors, and teaching
licensure candidates. This project involves training in oral proficiency
testing techniques according to the internationally recognized system
and scale (OPI) developed by ACTFL.In order to implement this system
of evaluation it first was necessary to get faculty members trained
in the testing techniques, which is accomplished by attending a four-day
(40 hours) ACTFL-sponsored OPI Testing Training Workshop. Thanks to
an ITL grant awarded to Dr. Christopher Eustis, Chair of
the Department of Modern Languages, the department received the
necessary funds to send Dr. Parizad Dejbord-Sawan, Dr. Paul Toth and
Dr. María Zanetta for training during summer 2002. Following
their training, in order to become certified by ACTFL as an official
tester, each faculty member had to conduct two rounds of oral interviews
for a total of some 60 hours, in which they had to record a minimum
of eight oral interviews with subjects representing different levels
of proficiency. The interviews generally lasted one-half hour
and then had to be evaluated by Drs. Toth, Dejbord and Zanetta
to determine the level of proficiency according to the ACTFL scale.
It generally is necessary to conduct more than eight interviews in
order to get a sufficient number of suitable samples. The sample
interviews were sent to expert ACTFL-certified tester trainers, who
then determined if they had followed the proper procedures
in conducting the interview and also ascertain if they had made a
correct determination of the subject’s proficiency level. The
entire process was extremely intensive, time consuming, and exhausting
for each of the participating faculty members. It is an
honor for the Department and the University of Akron that the three
Spanish faculty members have completed all of the 
required
interviews and are now all certified by ACTFL . Dr. Dejbord,
Dr. Toth and Dr. Zanetta have now begun the process of conducting
yearly oral proficiency interviews with Spanish majors and double
majors and for teaching licensure candidates. The Department
of Modern Languages at the University of Akron is nearly unique among
the institutions in the region in providing this service to the student
community. Moreover, The department’s is one of the few programs
that can give a nationally recognized certificate attesting the degree
of proficiency acquired by its students. This is extremely important
since now all foreign language teacher certification candidates must
achieve a state-mandated score of Advanced Low on the OPI before they
are permitted to undertake their student teaching. The department
foresees the possibility of eventually providing persons other than
our majors with the opportunity to be tested and to receive an official
ACTFL certificate showing the level of proficiency. For a fee,
this service may be available not only to students in other programs
such as International Business, Nursing, and Law Enforcement, but
also to the public at large. The department anticipates having
additional faculty members trained in OPI in the future.
UPDATED
MARCH 2004