Fifty years ago, John B. Carroll undertook a landmark study analyzing the oral proficiency of students in language programs in the United States. The often-cited article on his research, “Foreign Language Proficiency Levels Attained by Language Majors Near Graduation from College,” appeared in Foreign Language Annals in 1967—the first year of the journal’s publication. The impact on the language education profession was widespread and has been key to our knowledge of second language acquisition over the past half-century.
Now a new study from ACTFL promises to be the next major milestone in our professional understanding of how students acquire language—this time focusing on interpretive listening and reading.
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Lisa March is a bilingual Marketing and Sales Executive. She works closely with LTI on strategic partnerships, business development and marketing. Her efforts help LTI scale the use and implementation of language assessments in schools, institutions, corporations and government agencies.
The internet, much like space, is infinite. This opens people up to a limitless way to communicate and thus, language plays an important role in how information is displayed and translated.
Developing and implementing a language assessment strategy is an effective way for HR to measure the language ability of new appointments and existing staff. When assessing the business English skills for new employees, the first thing to consider is how much English language they need to know in order to carry out their roles effectively. This will allow you to set minimum benchmarks of language proficiency that all new staff must meet, in line with internationally recognised standards. The Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is a good place to start as it’s one of the most commonly used systems to describe different levels of language ability.
In the past, appealing to minorities was not a major concern to marketers in most industries. Ethnic groups in America were expected to assimilate into the mainstream over time, making it a case of Mohammed coming to the mountain.