Participants review the principles of proficiency in terms of the development of speaking skills, identifying functions and topics, elements of context, and aspects of culture involved in particular speaking tasks, so they can develop activities and strategies that will promote maximum student involvement in oral communication.

Participants are acquainted with a developmental sequence of writing tasks based on the descriptions contained in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines – Writing (Revised, 2001). Participants learn to develop writing activities and assessments that take into account the topics, purposes, intended readers, and functions of the message.

This workshop focuses on listening as a real-world skill, investigates factors influencing listening comprehension, and examines the role of pre-listening tasks as well as the difference between general and detailed understanding of an aural text; participants then develop post-listening activities and assessment tools.

Participants discuss the principles of proficiency in terms of the development of reading skills and the use of authentic texts.  They develop reading activities, with attention to the selection of texts and pre- and post-reading activities and strategies, as well as materials for testing reading comprehension.

The twenty-first century brings both a growing awareness that our students will be living in a “global village” and a challenge to prepare them to prosper in that competitive environment. Connecting language study with other subject areas helps prepare learners to interact effectively across the world’s many linguistic and cultural boundaries. This workshop introduces Languages Across the Curriculum (LAC), a curricular initiative that links languages and other subjects and proposes strategies for effectively integrating language learning with other disciplines at all levels of education.

This workshop addresses planning for, designing, and implementing a K-6 foreign language program. It presents a variety of curricular models, including immersion and partial immersion, for teaching languages other than English to younger learners. Curriculum planning, program objectives, and age-appropriate materials and assessments are explored and developed.

This workshop explores the meaning and importance of articulation within levels, level to level, school to school, and discipline to discipline and prepares teachers to develop a plan for articulation. Participants examine and share their own classroom and assessment goals and practices, and discover the practices of colleagues in order to develop bridges leading to a more effective and seamless foreign language sequence for their students within the framework of the National Standards.

This workshop provides an overview of the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Rating Scale and a description of the functions, contexts/content areas, discourse type and accuracy features appropriate to each level. Participants discuss the curricular implications of the proficiency scale and explore strategies and activities that enable students to cross proficiency level borders (i.e., Novice to Intermediate, Intermediate to Advanced, Advanced to Superior).