Standards for Foreign Language Learning

At the national level:

The National Standards for Foreign Language Learning may be found at the ACTFL site.  This is a good beginning for anyone unfamiliar with the Standards movement in foreign language education.
 
National Standards for Foreign Language Learning
(Executive Summary)

Once you have learned about the Standards, then you need to begin to address them in your curriculum.  But how?  You will find several suggestions in the following articles:  "Meeting the National Standards: Now What Do I Do?"  or the abridged ERIC Digest version, both by Jean W. LeLoup and Robert Ponterio.

A wonderful Standards resource is available online from the Embassy of Spain:  Materiales.  Each issue contains many different activities, using authentic materials and online resources.  Beginning with the November 1998 issue, the National Standards are specifically identified for each lesson.  There are lessons geared to the following levels: elemental, intermedio, y avanzado.
 

Spanish Standards:  AATSP
 

  • The Standards for Learning Spanish are now available in the tome Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century, 1999, Allen Press, Inc.  This comprehensive volume includes the original volume, Standards for Foreign Language Learning:  Preparing for the 21st Century, originally published in 1996 by Allen Press, Inc.  In addition to Spanish, the Standards for the following languages are present:  Chinese, Classical Languaages, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Russian.

    •  

    The Standards for Learning Spanish follow the National Standards in their goal areas (5 Cs) and individual standards.  Sample Progress Indicators are given for Grades 4, 8, 12, and 16 to underscore the desired continuity and sequencing of FL study.  Finally, thirteen learning exemplary scenarios are included in the volume.
     

  • The American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) sponsored a Standards project under the Professional Development Series Handbook for Teachers K-16.  The resultant Volume II is entitled Teaching Spanish with the Five C's: A Blueprint for Success, Gail Guntermann, Editor.  Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt College Publishers, 2000.



    • At the state level:

    The National Council of State Supervisors of Foreign Languages  home page has links to many state departments of education and state foreign language state association home pages.  In addition, several states have links to their particular foreign language standards pages.  This site will be a very useful resource as more states develop their curriculum frameworks for the standards and post them on the web.
     

    Following are brief summaries of work on foreign language standards being done at the state level.  Please visit the individual state standards pages for a more complete description of the state standards for each particular state.

    Illinois

    Illinois Learning Standards: Foreign Languages

    Three goals: (1) Communication, (2) Culture and Geography, and (3) Connections and Applications. These goal areas have descriptors at each of five stages of language proficiency. The five stages are designed to correspond to the students' expected level of progress as they study the language.

    Stage One: Beginning

    Stage Two: Beginning Intermediate

    Stage Three: Intermediate

    Stage Four: Advanced Intermediate

    Stage Five: Advanced

    The Stage One (Beginning) benchmarks need to be mastered first regardless of whether the study begins in elementary school, middle school or high school, with mastery of the other stages following in sequence. In short-term programs (e.g., current 2 - 4 year programs) students may not be able to achieve mastery of the more advanced stages.

    Massachusetts

    Foreign Language Curriculum Framework

    Core Concept: Language learning is never just about words. Language is the medium in which human beings think and by which they express what they have thought. The study of language—any language— is therefore the study of everything that pertains to human nature, as humans understand it.

    State framework has 5 strands and 8 standards.

    Strands: Communication (3 Standards), Cultures (1 Standard), Connections (1 Standard), Comparisons, (2 Standards), and Communities (1 Standard).

    New York

    Languages Other Than English (LOTE) Curriculum Guide on the web

    Modern Languages for Communication - New York State Syllabus

    Includes Classical, Foreign, Native American, and American Sign Languages. State framework has 2 standards:  Communication and Culture.

    Ohio

    Academic Content Standards - Foreign Language

    Elaborate competency-based model w/strands by grade levels:  aligned with National Standards goal areas of Communication, Culture, Comparisons, Connections, Communities.

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