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Using Proficiency as the Organizing Principle in an Advanced Speaking Course for Majors
Author(s) -
Dodds Dinah
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
foreign language annals
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.258
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1944-9720
pISSN - 0015-718X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1992.tb01133.x
Subject(s) - language proficiency , variety (cybernetics) , psychology , class (philosophy) , mathematics education , course (navigation) , course evaluation , higher education , medical education , pedagogy , computer science , engineering , medicine , artificial intelligence , law , political science , aerospace engineering
While the proficiency movement has spawned numerous first and second year textbooks, very few proficiency‐based materials are available for advanced students and majors. This article describes an advanced speaking course designed using the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines as the organizing principle. Students prepared and performed a wide variety of communicative tasks at the Advanced and Superior levels, including narrating and describing, hypothesizing, supporting an opinion, debating and being interviewed for a job. Assignments involved students in pairs and small group work as well as in the class as a whole. Audio and video taping provided feedback. Oral Proficiency Interviews administered at the beginning and the end of the course indicated an improvement in OPI rating for some students.