Bob Patrick sent this. It’s pretty sick:
This blows my mind. Today, posted on the ACTFL web board is a call for University teachers of the first four courses of language to respond to a survey. Here’s the post.
“The purpose of this survey is to collect data on proficiency targets for the first four courses in the foreign language sequence in higher education programs. The results will inform the work of the Ohio Board of Regents to develop learning outcomes for each of the first four courses. The intent is to facilitate articulation and transfer across the University System of Ohio and to ensure the rigor of dual-enrollment courses. Results also will be shared broadly through the language community.”
I have a few questions:
1. What makes this researcher think that the collective response will yield “outcomes” that the entire university system of Ohio or the broader language community will want to replicate?
2. Doesn’t she mistake status quo for best practices? By definition, best practices are those that yield positive results and can be duplicated. Best practices are always in a state of evolution toward what works better (like our PLC).
3. Are Latin and Greek somehow different? In the survey itself, the surveyor asks about category of language. Looks like she is using the Armed Forces Institute set of categories. Most folks agree that Latin belongs in Cat IV, but she keeps Latin and Greek as separate from the given categories. This is the problem that we face everywhere. Everyone is convinced that somehow Latin is different from other languages.
4. Is there not a difference in what teachers expect and what students are actually able to do? About the various modes of communication: interpersonal, interpretive and presentational, regarding reading, speaking and writing, she only asks what the teacher EXPECTS at the end of each level of the first four courses. She does not ask what students are actually able to do and what percentage of them are able to do it. My own experience at the university level is that who is able to do what is the way that they weed out the regular folks from language majors. 4 percenters are the ones left.
Okay, so after venting in this email, and before sending it, I took my points above, and wrote the researcher. Stay tuned.
Bob