Standards for Foreign Language Learningpreparing for the 21st Century

Standards – What’s the point?• If you don’t know where you’re going

any road will get you there. – Lewis Carrol

• How might this apply to language teaching and the Standards?

Do you Know your a b C’s?

A Quick Review of the National Standards for Foreign Language

Learning in the 21st Century

Yeah. Wonder what it cost?Nice

tie!

You think so?

2. Interpersonal 3. Interpretive

4. Presentational

5. Culture

?

8. Practices6. Products

7. Perspectives

Germ

an

Hist

ory

Scie

nce

9. Connections

10. Comparisons

11. Communities

Quizzito• CommunicationCulturesConnectionsComparisonsCommunities

• Write a sentence or two explaining the focus of each goal area.

Standards – What’s the point?

• Standards are like a guide to creating balanced meals.

• Guide to outcomesand experiences.

• Is your languageteaching balanced? communication

“Knowing how, when, and why . . . to say what to whom”

• Five things to know –• Where do things like grammar and vocab. fit?• Communication is the organizing principle.• Communication encompasses all of those.• Includes culture???

Standards - Communication• Standard 1.1: Students engage in conversations, provide and

obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions.

• Standard 1.2: Students understand and interpret written and spoken language on a variety of topics.

• Standard 1.3: Students present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics.

• Sometimes called interpersonal, interpretational and presentational

• ask some one that you haven’t talked to recently, How is this different than focusing on four skills, i.e. Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing?

Standards - What do they do?

• Complete this true false quiz with a partner.

• The standards tell us what to teach.

• The standards were created by business leaders.

• The Standards describe what happens generally in language classrooms in the U.S.

• Mostly F, T only vaguely

• T and F

• F, most teachers and students don’t implement the standards to a great degree.

How does proficiency differ from the standards?

Standards for Foreign Language Learning

• SAMPLE LEARNING SCENARIO: NEWSCAST• Description: In the Spanish II class in Williamston High School, a

small, rural community in Michigan, students worked in groups to write, produce, and videotape a fifteen-to-twenty minute Spanish language news show that included news events; a live, from-the-scene report; weather; sports; and commercials. The news events included items from the Spanish-speaking world, the United States, the state, and local areas.

• Does this lesson incorporate all five C’s?• Does this lesson incorporate all of the standards for

communication?

Omaggio • Skill getting• Pseudo communication• Learning structures• Teacher-centered• Controlled speech• Structured/focused

(predictable)• Complete sentences• Slow rate of speech• Systematic correction

• Skill using• Interaction, communication• Accomplishing tasks• Student-centered• Creative use of language• Open-ended, Spontaneous

activities

• Natural rate when possible• Delayed correction

What are some examples of skill getting and skill using activities?

• Read these sentences aloud to a partner and Fill in the blanks with correct form of the verb in parentheses.

• Yesterday I ______ (to be) cold.

• Write three sentences using the verb to be in the imperfect.

• Uno: You see a really cool green shirt in the store and it’s on sale. You really want it. You are going to a wedding and it would be perfect! But you only have $10.00, plus you were hoping to buy a slurpee on the way home. Find out how much the shirt costs. Can you afford it? Is it worth it? See how little you can buy it for.

• Dos: You work at a clothing store and you are selling the fancy green shirt above.• No one seems interested even though it’s discounted a lot. The price is $13.00.

You really need to sell it so the store doesn’t lose money and you want to make your boss happy, but the more you sell it for the more money you make.

The thorny issue of grammar

• What are mechanical drills?• Do you agree with their statement?• Why/why not? What evidence do you have?• How do you learn accurate grammar w/o drills?

Standards in action. . .• With a partner, identify which of the standards apply to each

situation.• A German teacher asks students to do an email exchange with

students in Germany.

• A Spanish teacher asks students to research various Spanish speaking destinations and create an itinerary for a vacation abroad.

• Students volunteer at a health care clinic which serves primarily Spanish speakers.

• A Spanish teacher gives a grammar lesson on the subjunctive. • How would these form part of a learning scenario?

Background on OPI

• In what settings does a Spanish major prepare students to use Spanish?

• How would you approach language learning differently if you were going to be a spy for the C.I.A.?

• Wanting to read and discuss Don Quixote in the language of Cervantes?

• 1950s??? What was going on?

• BTW, did the U.S. learn its lesson of “Linguistic Preparedness”?

• Questions• Where r u?

• Where do 202univ. students fall?

• How about 1 yearhigh school Span.?

What effect might the guidelines have on teaching?

• Focus on what you do with the language rather than grammar principles.

• One teacher says to students, after chapter 8 you will be able to use the imperfect…..

• Another teacher says,• after chapter 8 you’ll be

able to:share experiences from your childhood, talk about things you did when you were a kid etc.

• Guidelines = organizing principle.

• What does that mean?