Teaching for Proficiency in Dual Language Immersion

July 18–20, 2023

Location: Synchronous Online

Target Audience: This institute is designed for pre- or in-service teachers as well as program administrators of all languages who work in a Dual Language Immersion (DLI) context, both at the elementary and secondary levels.

This popular summer institute, designed especially for K-12 Dual Language Immersion (DLI) practitioners, will introduce participants to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, which have served as a framework for language assessment and instruction across levels since their initial publication in 1982. Participants will examine how the proficiency levels and sublevels have been defined and, also, how they have evolved over time from focusing on oral language assessment to include all modes of communication. The presenters will also share research on assessing performance toward proficiency of DLI students.

With an understanding of the proficiency framework, participants will apply the guidelines as an organizing principle to DLI classrooms, syllabi, and lesson planning, with the goal of developing lessons, learning tasks, and classroom-based, formative assessments that are consistent with a proficiency-based approach in a dual language immersion context.

After this institute, you will be able to:

Recognize the main characteristics of proficiency levels as defined by the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines;
Establish realistic proficiency targets using the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines;
Develop a formative assessment to gather evidence for oral or written proficiency;
Compile a list of effective classroom strategies that can be used to increase student proficiency in speaking and writing; and
Design a lesson plan that incorporates proficiency-based content and language objectives.

program schedule

Sponsored By:

CARLA

Instructors

Kerrie Neu is a district coordinator for the Dual Language Immersion programs at Granite School District in Utah. She is also an independent educational consultant, with a background in elementary education, early childhood, mathematics, and language acquisition, who creates curriculum and provides professional development for teachers.

Johanna Watzinger-Tharp is an Associate Professor of linguistics at the University of Utah. She teaches in the Department of Linguistics and also serves as L2TReC research coordinator. Together with Fernando Rubio, she has conducted large-scale research on proficiency attainment of elementary and secondary DLI students.