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October 2023 ACTFL Foundations Series – Registration Open!

ACTFL Classroom Instructional Strategies Workshops

ACTFL offers virtual, synchronous workshops on a variety of topics related to classroom teaching practices, classroom assessment, and lesson, unit, and curriculum design multiple times each year. Our current offering is the ACTFL Foundations Series in October 2023, including three half-day workshops covering the fundamental resources of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements.

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Engage with your colleagues and exceptional ACTFL facilitators during each live virtual event. Participants will have the opportunity to learn from ACTFL facilitators, collaborate and apply their learning during breakout sessions and discussion forums with fellow participants, and then share ideas and takeaways with the larger group. Each workshop will include activities to apply your learning and participants will leave the workshop with practical tools, examples, and tasks, ready to use within their classrooms.

Workshop Descriptions

What is proficiency and how can I focus my instruction on helping my learners continuously develop and strengthen their proficiency?  In this half-day workshop, examine the characteristics of the major levels of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and identify what changes as learners move through the Low, Mid, and High sublevels across the Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced ranges of proficiency. Apply that understanding to analyze and adjust classroom tasks to guide learners to demonstrate the targeted level of proficiency.
The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Language provide the framework for designing curriculum, planning instruction, and guiding learners. Standards put the focus for language programs on what learners should know and be able to do (and how well). In this half-day workshop, experience the process for using the standards to develop a unit of instruction. Reflect on how these standards can help develop "world-ready" learners.
The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements capture the key elements of proficiency to guide educators as they design tasks for learning or assessing language performance and to guide learners as they monitor their progress along the proficiency continuum. In this half-day workshop, unwrap the components of the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements and discover how they are connected, linking language and culture. Identify specific strategies to help learners develop and apply what they need to raise their language performance to a higher level. Support your learners by focusing on what they can do!
What really counts to move along the proficiency continuum (from Novice, to Intermediate, and towards the Advanced level of proficiency)? What strategies are effective for developing proficiency using each Mode of Communication? Through the lens of the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements, unpack the elements of proficiency and what they mean for planning effective tasks.  Experience and analyze a variety of examples from one sample unit of instruction. Identify one class that you are teaching and use that as a lens through which to apply your learning. Guide your learners to develop the language functions and confidence to move to higher levels of proficiency.
Begin by developing a shared understanding of what language proficiency is across levels and how to support learners’ progress towards proficiency goals. Develop a toolbox of strategies to design purposeful units and performance tasks in the three modes of communication (Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational) and identify day-to-day learning activities that support language goals. Apply the principles of backward design and the use of authentic resources to effectively plan meaningful learning experiences in the target language. Explore the assessment of language skills in each mode of communication as well as strategies for involving learners in self-assessment for ongoing proficiency growth.

ACTFL Assessment Workshops

ACTFL holds virtual assessment workshops multiple times per year that are open for individual registration. These workshops include the OPI Familiarization, OPI Assessment, and Modified OPI Assessment.

Want to be able to accurately distinguish the ranges between a beginner language learner’s memorized speech and the complex opinions and theoretical musings of a highly sophisticated speaker of a language? Join your language teaching colleagues across the world to understand the 10 different levels that can be used to rate a language learner’s speaking ability within the context of a spontaneous, authentic conversation – the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Discover the ways in which the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the Oral Proficiency Interview, and OPI Tester Certification can benefit your career and improve your teaching strategies to guide your learners to the next level.

The OPI and Modified OPI (MOPI) Assessment Workshops introduce the ACTFL rating scale, the structure of the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and techniques of administering and rating the OPI, including its applications in the language classroom. Participants observe and conduct practice interviews across a range of proficiency levels. These workshops are similar to the in-person 2-day MOPI and 4-day OPI workshops and include additional content.

With this virtual format, participants will work asynchronously on the modules at their own pace, participate in two videoconferencing sessions for facilitator-led discussion and respond to prompts for reflection and application via a discussion board. The last portion of the course includes practice interviews with feedback and discussion from the facilitator. Each participant who wants to pursue certification needs to conduct a practice interview with guidance from the facilitator. The workshops are intensive and require a significant time commitment both on-demand and in live synchronous videoconferencing sessions.

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Workshop Descriptions

The Virtual OPI Assessment Workshop introduces the ACTFL rating scale, the structure of the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), and techniques for administering and rating the OPI, including its applications in the language classroom. With this online format, participants will work asynchronously on six modules at their own pace and will receive feedback from facilitators during two 1.5-hour discussion sessions and with responses on a discussion board.

The last portion of the course includes the practice interviews with feedback and discussion from the facilitator and other participants. Each participant will observe an exemplar interview conducted by the facilitator and practice interviews conducted by their fellow participants and will also conduct one practice interview with guidance from the facilitator. Participants observe and conduct live practice interviews across all proficiency levels (Novice through Superior).

Upon completion of the six on-demand online modules and attendance at the two facilitator-led discussion sessions and all 11 practice interviews, participants will receive a certificate verifying 30 hours of professional development. Participation in an OPI Assessment Workshop is the first step towards becoming an ACTFL Certified OPI Tester with Full Certification (Novice through Superior).

Participants will receive a certificate verifying 30 hours of professional development
The Virtual Modified OPI Assessment Workshop covers the same information as the OPI Assessment Workshop, but is designed to focus more on the Novice and Intermediate proficiency levels. Participants will work asynchronously on six modules at their own pace and will receive feedback from facilitators during two 1.5-hour discussion sessions and with responses on a discussion board.

The last portion of the course, like the Virtual OPI Assessment Workshop, includes practice interviews with feedback and discussion from the facilitator and other participants. Each participant will observe an exemplar interview conducted by the facilitator and practice interviews conducted by their fellow participants and will also conduct one practice interview with guidance from the facilitator. Participants observe and conduct live practice interviews across proficiency levels Novice Low – Advanced Low.

Upon completion of the six on-demand online modules and attendance at the two facilitator-led discussion sessions and all 8 practice interviews, participants will receive a certificate verifying 25 hours of professional development. Participation in an OPI Assessment Workshop is the first step towards becoming an ACTFL Certified OPI Tester with Limited Certification (Novice Low through Intermediate High).

Participants will receive a certificate verifying 25 hours of professional development.

Which Workshop is Right for Me?

The OPI and MOPI workshops are very similar. Consider these factors when choosing the right workshop for you:

If your learners are targeting the Novice and Intermediate levels of proficiency, ACTFL recommends participating in a MOPI Workshop. The MOPI Workshop emphasizes these levels and the practice interviews target Novice Low through Intermediate High. If your learners are able to reach the Advanced and Superior levels of proficiency (typically within the postsecondary context or a very well-articulated K-12 immersion program), then ACTFL recommends participating in an OPI Workshop. The OPI Workshop covers all proficiency levels used to rate the OPI and practice interviews target Novice Low through Superior
Completing an OPI or MOPI workshop is the first step in eligibility for pursuing OPI Tester Certification.If you want to be authorized to conduct advisory (unofficial) OPIs within your academic institution or have the opportunity to be hired as a tester or rater for Language Testing International (LTI), you must become an ACTFL OPI Certified Tester within the appropriate language(s).

In order to be certified to conduct advisory OPIs from Novice Low through Superior, you must pursue Full Certification, which means you must both have a Superior personal OPI rating within the target language and complete an OPI Workshop.

If you do not need or wish to conduct advisory OPIs across the full range of proficiency levels, you can pursue Limited Certification. This certification allows you to conduct advisory OPIs from Novice Low through Intermediate High. In this case, you can complete a MOPI Workshop instead of an OPI Workshop but must have a personal OPI rating of at least Advanced Mid within the target language.

In order to be certified to conduct advisory OPIs from Novice Low through Superior, you must pursue Full Certification, which means you must both have a Superior personal OPI rating within the target language and complete an OPI Workshop.

If you do not need or wish to conduct advisory OPIs across the full range of proficiency levels, you can pursue Limited Certification. This certification allows you to conduct advisory OPIs from Novice Low through Intermediate High. In this case, you can complete a MOPI Workshop instead of an OPI Workshop but must have a personal OPI rating of at least Advanced Mid within the target language.

Requirements to Participate

As prerequisite to qualify to attend an OPI or MOPI workshop as well as apply for ACTFL OPI Tester Certification, registrants must be affiliated with (currently or previously) an academic institution as defined by ACTFL, have an undergraduate degree in a related field, and have a minimal proficiency level of Advanced Mid in the language of the workshop.

An academic institution is an accredited school, college, or university where foreign languages are taught. The term "affiliation with an academic institution" is defined as a current or previous faculty and/or staff member involved in the instruction or evaluation of language students. Private language companies that offer translation services or language testing do not qualify under ACTFL's definition of an academic institution. Private for-profit companies do not qualify.

OPI Tester Certification

After completing an OPI or MOPI workshop, participants will be eligible to pursue ACTFL OPI Tester Certification, if desired. Participants may apply for certification in any language regardless of the language of training.

Registrants intending to apply for Full OPI Tester Certification must participate in an OPI Assessment Workshop. Registrants intending to apply for Limited OPI Tester Certification may participate in either an OPI Assessment or MOPI Assessment Workshop.

Resources by Topic

Individual Workshops

October 2023 ACTFL Foundations Series – Registration Open!

ACTFL Classroom Instructional Strategies Workshops

Workshop Descriptions

ACTFL Assessment Workshops

Workshop Descriptions

Which Workshop is Right for Me?

Requirements to Participate

OPI Tester Certification