post<\/a>.\u00a0 Like many of the others who\u2019ve contributed to this conversation, I don\u2019t feel that my own methodologies fit neatly into either of the categories that the writer described. In fact, I disagree with her suggestion that \u201cit helps us communicate better and more efficiently about diverse practices if we can categorize teaching styles.\u201d It was clear from the responses \u00a0that the professionals in the language teaching community are committed to finding common ground and learning from each other.\u00a0 Although I am not nearly as far along my proficiency-oriented journey as many of my distinguished colleagues, I’m thrilled to join the conversation by sharing my current understandings of what it means to be a “proficiency-based” teacher.<\/p>\nOn the most basic level, being proficiency-based means that I make my instructional decisions based on what I believe will improve my students\u2019 proficiency. However, this definition is not as straightforward as it seems. As the ACTFL Performance Descriptors state, \u201cProficiency is the ability to use language in real world situations in a spontaneous interaction and non-rehearsed context and in a manner acceptable and appropriate to native speakers of the language.\u201d\u00a0 Therefore, as a classroom teacher, it is only performance (\u201clanguage ability that has been practiced and is within familiar contexts and content areas\u201d) that I am actually able to assess. Nevertheless, I\u2019m not quite ready to begin referring to myself as a \u201cperformance-based\u201d teacher.\u00a0 While I might not be assessing actual proficiency, my goal is to prepare my students to prepare my students to function in target language environments. As ACTFL states, \u201cinstruction needs to focus on real world-like tasks with the anticipation that learners will be prepared to do the same outside the instructional setting (as in a demonstration of proficiency).\u201d<\/p>\n
Although I hadn\u2019t heard the term \u201ctask-based\u201d used to refer to proficiency-oriented teachers, I can see why Martina chose it.\u00a0 ACTFL talks a lot about tasks when describing best practices for instruction and assessment. For example, they recommend that \u201cEducators should provide language learners with practice of a variety of tasks related to the curriculum. In this way, learners will be ready to apply these elements in the context of the new tasks they will face on the performance.” Based on my understandings of these Performance Descriptors, the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, and the ACTFL Can-Do Statements, I have come to believe that well-designed tasks can lead to increased proficiency.\u00a0 Therefore, I use the following types of tasks in my instructional practice.<\/p>\n
Interpretive Tasks.<\/strong> \u00a0Much of my planning involves designing tasks in which my students will interpret a written or recorded text.\u00a0 Because I am preparing my students for the \u201creal world\u201d these texts are nearly always authentic–created and produced for native speakers by native speakers.\u00a0 While the reliance on authentic texts continues to be a point of divergence between my fabulous \u201cComprehensible Input\u201d colleagues and those of us that are \u201cProficiency-based,\u201d for now I\u2019m convinced that using these resources is vital. I believe that my students must practice the skills required to interpret a text in which they don\u2019t know all of the words.\u00a0 As with other language skills, many students also need to develop a certain level of confidence to complete these tasks.\u00a0 Practicing the interpretation of authentic resources in class both develops the skills of using context clues, identifying cognates, making inferences, etc. and builds the students\u2019 confidence in their ability to do so. By choosing texts that are appropriate to the students\u2019 proficiency level and then designing tasks that allow students to successfully demonstrate their comprehension, I ensure that my students are able to interpret increasingly complex texts on a wider variety of topics.<\/p>\nInterpersonal Tasks. <\/strong>As a proficiency-based teacher, I believe that students can increase their ability to communicate in this mode by practicing the skills required to negotiate meaning with another individual.\u00a0 For the novice students, this means lots of class time is spent practicing the questions and answers that they will use during the performance assessment.\u00a0 I try to create a variety of contexts in which these questions and answers are used, so that the students are never rehearsing the actual conversation that will take place during the assessment.\u00a0 As the students\u2019 proficiency increases, more open-ended tasks allow the students to practice creating with the language on a wider variety of topics.<\/p>\nPresentational Tasks. <\/strong>\u00a0After my students have been exposed to new vocabulary and structures in the authentic materials that they read and use this language to communicate with others, they complete and written and\/or spoken presentational task. Depending on their proficiency level, the students may write (or say) short sentences or paragraph-length discourse.<\/p>\nAlthough my current practices seem to fit with the \u201ctask-based\u201d methodology that Martina described, I found that many of the descriptors she used did not describe my teaching.\u00a0 For example, she indicates that proficiency-based teachers use English to teach culture.\u00a0 In my classroom, it is the authentic resources that I choose that enable my students to develop new understandings about the target culture.\u00a0 She also mentions that the infinitive is the \u201cdefault form\u201d in a proficiency-based classroom.\u00a0 My students see all types of verb forms in the materials they read and use the forms that they need to express their meaning on the instructional tasks.\u00a0 With my early novice learners, this means that most of their responses use the first person and they add the second person as they begin to ask questions. Lastly, she describes task-based teaching as providing broad and shallow input.\u00a0 While it\u2019s not clear to me exactly what she means by this, the gains that my students have made in their language performance reassures me that the input they receive may be deep enough to lead to increased proficiency.<\/p>\n
While I didn\u2019t agree with many of Martina\u2019s assumptions about what those of us who refer to ourselves as \u201cproficiency-based\u201d do in the classroom, I sure am glad she wrote this post. Her professionalism in responding to her readers and openness about her own growth is inspirational.\u00a0 I am looking forward to continuing to learn from her and from the other great educators that have joined in the discussion about best practices in the language classroom!<\/p>\n
Image Credit: http:\/\/www.lumaxart.com\/<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Over the past few days I\u2019ve been honored to be part of a series of exciting Twitter conversations about what it means to be a proficiency-based language teacher. The conversation all started with this thought-provoking post.\u00a0 Like many of the others who\u2019ve contributed to this conversation, I don\u2019t feel that my own methodologies fit neatly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings"],"yoast_head":"\n
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