1. Understanding the World Languages Program Review
Dr. Jacque Van Houten, KDE

2. Agenda Why a World Language Program Review?
The document and the timeline.
What does proficiency in a WL look like?
What does effective WL teaching/learning look like in a classroom? In a program?
What resources are there to help?

3. Traditional 21st Century Reasons Reasons
To improve vocabulary
To learn your own language better (grammar)
For travel abroad
To learn geography
To enrich knowledge of culture
To get into college
To appreciate int’l lit, music, art, film
To improve communicative and cultural competencies
To speak to our neighbor & co-worker
To improve employment potential and advancement; to compete for hire
To prepare for the military; National Security and International Diplomacy
To build literacy & sharpen cognitive skills
To meet college admission requirements
Because learning a language involves a variety of learning skills, studying a foreign language can enhance one's ability to learn and function in several other areas. Children who have studied a language at the elementary level score higher on tests in reading, language arts, and math. People who have learned foreign languages show greater cognitive development in areas such as mental flexibility, creativity, and higher order thinking skills, such as problem-solving, conceptualizing, and reasoning.
In addition to cognitive benefits, the study of foreign languages leads to the acquisition of some important life skills. Because language learners learn to deal with unfamiliar cultural ideas, they are much better equipped to adapt and cope in a fast-changing world. They also learn to effectively handle new situations. In addition, the encounter with cultures different from one's own leads to tolerance of diverse lifestyles and customs. And it improves the learner's ability to understand and communicate with people from different walks of life.

4. Trending… International Benchmarking
Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Global Matrix
College & Career Readiness
Career & Technical education, internships
Emphasis on literacy and Common Core ELA

5. International Benchmarking
Finland – everyone’s standard for math
Every student exits high school with communicative competence in at least 4 and usually 5 other languages
Korea – high scores
Every student learns English; OPI testing
• EU – requires 3 languages for graduation and funds college study in another EU country
• Brazil – Students learn Portuguese (L1), Spanish, and now English

6. Partnership for 21st Century Skills
Core subjects:
1. English
2. WL = communication and literacy;
Interdisciplinary theme = Global Awareness
Creativity and Innovation
Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Communication and Collaboration

7. Global Competence Matrix
Investigate the World*
Recognize Perspectives*
Communicate ideas with diverse audiences**
Take Action*
**KY WL Standard Language Competencies
*KY WL Standard Intercultural Competencies
Investigation, recognizing perspectives and taking action are directly representative of the KY Standard for WL Proficiency Intercultural Competencies. Communication is the focus of the Standard’s Language Competencies.

8. College and Career Readiness
Switch from seat time to proficiency level requirements at UK & WKU
Only precollege requirement that did not become a graduation requirement for all
Career & Tech now have courses in Sp for … and int’l internships
Career
KWTC and KY Chamber of Commerce are calling for students to be prepared with competency in another WL another language and interculturality
Ag, service industry, courts & medical calling for languages
Military pays bonuses for WL competency and requires officers to demonstrate proficiency

9. Emphasis on Common Core ELA
ELA’s Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening are captured in the World Language Standards goal area of Communication, by emphasizing the purpose behind the 3 modes of communication:
 Interpersonal (speaking-listening or writing-reading)
 Interpretive (reading, listening, viewing)
 Presentational (writing, speaking, visually
representing)

10. Alignment to ELA Common Core State Standards
In learning a WL students:
Learn to ask and answer questions, identify words, describe people, places and things, retell stories, interpret text, and apply the conventions of language
Developing mental flexibility, decoding and problem-solving skills, and increase memory function
In addition, students:
(Romance) Learn a new phonetic system, whole new vocabulary, extra language conventions (spelling, accent marks, pronunciation, intonation, inflection)
(Asian) Learn to read by character recognition and write by following precise stoke steps to form a single character that may represent a word or phrase
3rd grade students who had received four years of language instruction in the Georgia Elementary School FL Model Program significantly outscored older students who had not had FL instruction on the Math portion of the ITBS.

11. National Perspective
Since 2007 the U.S. Department of Defense spends $57 million each year to increase national language capacity.
Governors of DE, UT and NC have prioritized language learning in their education agendas. DE has world language in every elementary school and 22 immersion schools. UT has 52 dual immersion schools and NC has 57 immersion schools, VA 35.
WI and WA recognize higher levels of proficiency with certificates, somewhat like technical skills certificates.

12. Illiteracy in the 21st century = Monolingualism
So, how do we prepare our students with the world language and cultural competencies they need to compete with other countries and defend our nation?

13. High School based learning for some students
Service- and community-based learning
Project-based learning
Study abroad
internships
High School based learning for some students
Middle school based learning for some students
Elementary school based learning for all students
Online courses, dual-credit courses
Summer camps
We need to flip our approach to teaching and learning world languages, so that more students have intense experiences in elementary school, where research shows learning is easier and has the greatest overall effect (cognition, literacy, pronunciation, etc.) By the time they get to high school, students should be using language for collaborative int’l projects, interning in companies that need language speakers, doing community service projects in heritage communities, etc.

14. Timeline
2005 State Board directive to build capacity for graduation requirement; LinguaFolio; China MOU; Gov’s Summit on Int’l Education
2006 Alt Cert program; WL/Arts Teacher Academies
2007 Assessment pilot
2009 Proficiency-based WL Standards
2010 EPSB/CPE/KDE WL Summit; Confucius Institutes
2011 Gov.’s TEK Recommendation 3E for enhancing the teaching of world languages at all grade levels. KWLA FL Festival change
2012 UK/WKU admission req’t change; Proficiency training blitz: Preparing a Global Workforce symposia.
2006-7: Alt cert for WL teachers at NKU; KET produces Arte Y Mas for elementary Spanish with arts content;

15. WL Program Review Timeline
• Preparation Year
Professional Development
Proficiency Training
Immersion Incentive grants
• Pilot Year
• Field Testing Year
• Full Implementation

16. teaching/learning look like
What’s the
BIG
picture?
What should WL
teaching/learning look like
in a program?

17. Expanding the Languages Taught in KY
Spanish
French
Chinese
German
Latin
Japanese
ASL
Arabic
Russian
And ENGLISH as a Second Language

18. Changing the Practice
Focus on functional language with grammar as a tool
Emphasis on proficiency/performance versus seat time for learning outcomes and credit
Importance of formative and summative performance- based assessment;
Shift from textbooks to thematic/content-based
Popularity of hybrid or blended courses
Teacher professional development = professional learning communities, PLCs
How: Time, Funding, Teachers are not the major issues.
Rosetta Stone is not the answer
Think innovatively
Focus on PROFICIENCY
Create LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES
INCENTIVISE LANGUAGE LEARNING

19. Forging New Directions
Longer & Stronger, Pyramid Base: Begin language learning at a younger age and continue learning opportunities throughout schooling
Increase the effectiveness of language learning opportunities
Expand the range of languages
Expand access and opportunities to learn via innovative delivery systems
Establish clear proficiency expectations for students’ language learning outcomes
Recognize & encourage learning wherever it occurs

20. It’s all about learning to USE a language in today’s world
Proficiency = Performance
Culture is more than food and song
The earlier the better & easier
Growth takes time

21. Let’s look at the Program Review
Student Access
The school provides opportunities for each student, including heritage speakers, to learn and develop benchmarked proficiencies in at least one world language by scheduling time for instruction, learning opportunities, and monitoring.
The school promotes and encourages language- learning opportunities for each student outside of school and recognizes achievement through performance-based credit.

22. Elementary Model Options
Traditional teacher in a classroom
Dual Language Immersion school or strand
Hybrid: (i.e., Arte Y Mas, Middlebury Interactive + shared teacher + language facilitator)
Literacy Centers
Before/After school programs
• Intensive summer camps

23. Steps to Starting a Program
Determine a language policy that reflects a shared vision.
Administer a community survey
Recognize/Promote outside learning the classroom
Establish school language proficiency targets.
Investigate existing models/visit schools
Consider: immersion, hiring a visiting teacher, partnering with university/community, summer programs, hybrid programs, utilizing parent volunteers, etc.

24. Possible first steps…
Engage native speakers, language teachers, high school or college students to work afterschool with student volunteers to create label phrases (i.e., media center hours, today’s lunch is, put papers here, do not disturb, etc.)
During announcements use the language to greet, give a phrase of the day, recognize a world holiday, etc.
Celebrate ESL student’s home languages.
Bring in a guest native speaker to aide a PE teacher in doing an activity only in the target language (dance, aerobic exercise, sport, etc.).
Post things around the school that are written in another language.
Invite foreign speakers and ask them to use some of their language.
Encourage teachers integrate the language (look at foreign labels, learn to pronounce foreign names, titles correctly.

25. Possible second steps…
Start a serious before or after school language club for each grade with targeted I Can goals
Give incentives for demonstration of language performance
Include a WL station in literacy centers (i.e., use a software pgm; read a book in English that uses foreign words, pair an ESL student with English speaking students)
Initiate a partnership with a foreign school and SKYPE them
Model use of the world language

26. Program Review: Aligned & Rigorous Curriculum
is designed to develop students 21st Century skills of creativity, innovation, critical thinking, problem solving and collaboration.
is designed to build students’ cognitive and literacy skills in another language …
intentionally integrates content across disciplines …

27. Student Performance
Students demonstrate consistent growth in the three modes of communication
Students demonstrate consistent benchmarked growth in the development of their intercultural competencies
Students set performance goals …
Students use the language outside of class …

28. What is World Language Proficiency?
Language is described in proficiency levels and sublevels (low/mid/high) that outline key benchmarks achieved in world language programs given sufficient instruction over time:
Novice (the beginning level, regardless of age or grade)
Intermediate
Advanced
Superior

29. Scenario A Martian has landed in your neighborhood
and is asking around about this thing called
a “circus.” Follow the directions on the
card you are given to describe a circus
for your new friend.
Novice Low—describe a circus in single words: clowns, tigers, acrobats, fun, big top
Novice Mid—describe a circus in words and phrases: clowns ride tricycles, elephants marching, tigers jumping through hoops
Novice High—describe a circus in simple sentences: The clowns ride the elephants, they sell cotton candy, acrobats swing through the air
Intermediate Low: Describe a circus in strings of sentences
Intermediate Mid: Describe a circus in a paragraph

30. ACTFL Inverted Pyramid: Moving up the levels requires exponential growth (horizontally as well as vertically)
The most critical factor in developing higher levels of proficiency in a second language is time. According to research, many
students in K-12 systems with continuous performance-oriented sequences aligned to the standards can reach Pre-Advanced,
if continuously enrolled K through 12. Most secondary systems (7-12 or 9-12) have Novice High as their exit proficiency goal.

31. Kentucky Standard for WL Proficiency
One Standard
6 Core Competencies:
3 Linguistic, 3 Intercultural
Core Performance Skills reported out in
ACTFL Proficiency Guideline levels
Learner Benchmarks
Learning Indicators
Sample Learning Targets

32. Kentucky’s World Language Core Competencies
LINGUISTIC COMPETENCIES
Interpretive Listening and Reading
I can interpret information, concepts, and ideas from a variety of culturally authentic sources on a variety of topics.
Interpersonal Communication
I can exchange information, concepts, and ideas with a variety of speakers or readers on a variety of topics in a culturally appropriate context.
Presentational Speaking and Writing
I can present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners or readers on a variety of topics in a culturally appropriate context.

33. Learner Benchmark
1.NH.R: I can communicate on very familiar topics using a variety of words and phrases that I have practiced and memorized.
Learning Indicator:
I can communicate some basic information about my everyday life.
Sample Learning Goal or Target:
I can give times, dates and weather information.
I can tell about what I eat, learn, and do.
I can tell about places I know.
I can ask and understand how much something costs.
I can tell someone the time and location of a community event.
I can

34. Kentucky’s World Language Core Competencies
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCIES
Investigation
I can use my language skills to investigate the world beyond my immediate environment.
Perspective
I can recognize and understand my own and others’ ways of thinking.
Action
I can use my language skills and cultural understanding to interact with others and improve my world.

35. Learner Benchmark:
1NH.IC I can identify  some basic cultural beliefs and values.
Learning Indicator:
I can identify some beliefs and values related to age, gender, social class and ethnicity.
Learning Targets:
I can sometimes tell the way people address each other differently based on age and social standing.
I can sometimes recognize that appropriate dress is determined by cultural traditions.
I can recognize that gender and age can determine one’s role in the family, school, and workplace.

36. What should WL teaching/learning look like in a classroom, in a program?

37. KEY PROGRAM COMPONENTS
• Curriculum focused on communication building cognitive and literacy skills.
• The target language used almost all of the time and learning and is made comprehensible through a variety of strategies (i.e., visuals, body language, objects, hands-on-experiences) and technologies.
• Students are provided a variety of ways to experience and communicate in the three modes of communication (interpretive, interpersonal and presentational) in authentic cultural contexts.
• Authentic performance tasks are routinely used to assess students’ language and there is a thoughtful procedure for documenting and reporting student performance.

38. Unit Profile: Elementary
Learning Target:
I can give information about my pet, describe it, tell where it lives, what it likes to do, what, where and when it eats.
Performance Assessment:
You have a partner class in a foreign country and want to share information about pets. Your task is to show a photo and tell about the pet.

39. Sample themes Eating Right and Getting Fit
Counting Pennies for a Rainy Day
Can you dance?
How safe is your water?
Reading for Pleasure
Fantasy Soccer
Eye care, do you?
Note the integration of other content: Counting Pennies—economics, consumer spending, monetary units, etc.

40. Options for Demonstrating Proficiency
End-of-course Assessment
Benchmark Assessments
LinguaFolio Evidence
Online Standardized Tests
(NOELLA)
Teacher-designed Performance-Based Assessments
E-Portfolios
Integrated Performance Assessments
Student-designed Performance-Based Assessments
Regional World Language Showcase
ELLOPA & SOPA assessments
Oral Interviews
Performance Events

41. What helps to learn a language?
Hearing, seeing and using the target language
Comprehensible instruction
Frequent & meaningful participation
Active involvement in the learning process

42. KY World Language Proficiency Route
Traditional HS sequence
FLES
The TBD option
Immersion
Programs
IndependentTech-enabled
KY World Language Proficiency Route
Options
Middle
College
Foreign Exchange/Travel
These are the paths students can take to learn WLs, ranging from traditional middle and high school classes, to elementary WL study where language is maintained through an ILP, to state, national or international summer language camp, to virtual classes, to living or staying in a foreign country, etc. If students meet the proficiency goal in elementary school, then they create an Individual Learning Plan to sustain and improve their proficiency. Schools may offer classes or conversation groups that meet once, twice, or three times a week, as in Europe.
Heritage Speakers
Summer Language
Camps
Traditional Virtual Sequence

43. What resources
are there
to help?

44. KY Course Codes Elementary School (P-5) Spanish I
Engages learners in developmentally appropriate activities to acquire the language necessary to communicate within the novice range on the ACTFL Proficiency scale on a variety of topics, including connections to other subject areas. Cultural aspects are typically included in order to understand the relationship among the products, practices and perspectives of Spanish speaking cultures.  In addition, students develop insight into their own language and culture.

45. KY Course Codes
Elementary School World Language Immersion. This class facilitates the learning of a world language within the novice to intermediate range on the ACTFL Proficiency scale through a specific grade level content area, such as science, math, etc.
World Language Special Topics Provides cursory look at one or more language and culture. N.B. This course was only be available through the school year.

46. Immersion Program Resources
RFP for Kentucky Language Immersion Initiative
1) $35,000 to 3 school for
implementation grant
2) $10,000 to 10 schools for
planning grants

47. PROFICIENCY TRAINING Co-op MOAs-- $10,000 each --OPI trainings*
--PD for administrators
--Conference attendance support
• Summer NXG World Language & Arts Academies
$10,000 grants to schools for attendees
KY World Language Association
Conference theme: “Proficiency to the Core”
World Language Showcase redesign

48. KWLA Language Showcase
State participation requires a demonstration of Novice High in two regional events
Events:
On Site Performance Tasks
Community Service Projects
Interdisciplinary Projects
Personal Interest Projects
Language Bowl
Group multi-step language challenge

49. Teacher/Student Resources
Visiting / Guest Teachers (Spain, China, France, Germany, Japan)
Language & Culture Assistants through Embassies
NKU, UK summer certification programs
Teacher Academies
STARTALK programs
Summer camps/Concordia Language Villages
KET’s Arte Y Mas (K-3 arts/Spanish)

50. For more information, contact
Dr. Jacque Van Houten