May 5, 2013
American Association of Teachers of French
Mailcode 4510
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901
ACTFL Headquarters
1001 N Fairfax Street Suite
200 Alexandria, VA 22314
Dear ACTFL and AATF:
I write on behalf of a student who just took the National French Exam. I need some clarification from you, the two national parent organizations which guide my instruction as a high school French teacher here in Denver Public Schools.
In the ACTFL standards, as expressed in the Three Modes of Communication and in the 90% Use position statement, nowhere do I see mention of discrete grammar concepts as indicators of Proficiency. Yet, on this year’s level 2 National French Exam, sponsored by AATF), 30% of the questions (20 out of 70) asked questions about discrete grammar. This confuses me.
Shouldn’t the National French Contest fully align with the Proficiency Guidelines of ACTFL? Is it not unfair to my students to ask them to compete on a national exam that is not aligned with the national standards? Don’t my students have a right to be tested by AATF according to the national standards, since I am expected to teach to those standards?
Specifically, when I begin to prepare my students for next year’s exam, must I direct my instruction to those 20 of 70 questions that this year required knowledge of exact spelling and rules of agreement, verb forms, gender, object pronoun spelling, etc., as described below? Please correct me if I am misreading anything here – I am genuinely confused. I am getting two distinctly different messages from two national parent organizations.
My student scored as follows this year:
1. On the entire exam, she missed 12, with a score of 58 out of 70 (82%), for the tenth ranked score in the state of Colorado.
2. Had the grammar questions not been included on the test, however, she would have missed 5 out of 50 (90%).
The way the state rankings are set up, this difference between an 82% and a 90%would have made a significant difference in how she was ranked, which could make a difference in attracting the attention of college scholarship programs, which, since she lives in poverty, is her target in all this.
Specifically, this student missed 3 of 30 listening questions, and 2 of 20 of the reading questions, and 7 of the 20 grammar questions.
So the problem is clear. My student this year did not get the instruction in grammar because I align my instruction fully with ACTFL, as I have been told to do by my district, so you can understand my concern and need for clarification.
Is ACTFL driving the curriculum agenda nationally? If so, then I would expect that AATF would fully reflect their recommendations, which, unless I am wrong, state that students be evaluated in terms of Proficiency and not in terms of discrete grammar points.
In reading the specifications for each level on the AATF website I did notice that the Grammar section of the exam, those 20 questions (#30-#50) were not even labeled as a Grammar section, as were the Listening and Reading sections. I wonder about that. Perhaps it was just an oversight.
On your website you specify the following as necessary for success on the test:
All common regular -er, -ir and -re verbs
The four irregular verbs avoir, être, aller, faire. Eight additional irregulars: mettre, prendre, dormir, sortir, partir, vouloir, pouvoir, savoir
Regular -er, -ir and -re verbs at passé composé, along with passé composé of the above mentioned irregular verbs avoir, être, aller, faire, mettre, prendre, dormir, sortir, partir. Common « être » verbs vs. « avoir »
Pronominal verbs only at present
Imperfect might be used in listening comprehension and reading selections, but not tested as a grammar item
Agreement and position of all adjectives
Comparatives and superlatives of regular adjectives and adverbs plus.que, moins. .que
Interrogative pronouns: qui, qui est-ce qui, que, qu’est-ce que, quoi
Object pronouns with verbs at present tense, use of one pronoun only – le, lui, y, en., etc…
Use of prepositions with geographical names à, en, au, aux
Simple negations rien, jamais, personne, plus
All regular imperatives, including mangeons, finissons
All possessive adjectives, notre…., leur…..
Clearly there is a discrepency here, one that needs to be addressed, so teachers like me can know what to teach. Don’t you that think AATF should fully align with ACTFL in their articulation and assessment of skills taught in American classrooms? This would certainly be an interesting headline to read in the Education section of the Huffington Post (I went to high school with Michael Huffington): “High School Language Teacher Sues Professional Organization Over National Standards”.
Please let me know what you think.
One further note:
Please understand that my purpose in all this is to help my student to get into college. She is Latino and since she lives in poverty a scholarship is the only way she can get to college, so my questions here bear heavily on her future. She is only a 9th grader and if I can get my questions answered I will know how to prepare her for the 2014 National French Contest so that she can score higher than tenth place next year and thus greatly increase her chances at a scholarship.
It is particularly important to note here is that recent research shows that in the college acceptance process non-resident students are typically more affluent than resident students because only affluent households can afford non-resident tuition prices. Therefore, growth in non-resident college students may crowd-out enrollment opportunities for students from low-income households who live in the state. It would be a shame to see my student lose out in her quest for college because she is a minority student.
