Impact of the Proficiency Scale and the Oral Proficiency Interview on the Foreign Language Program at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center

2003 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 566-571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Herzog
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interview ◽  
Defense Language Institute

The Use of Situation Tests as Measures of Communicative Ability

1988 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Raffaldini
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
The United States ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
American University ◽  
Grammatical Competence ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interview ◽  
Communicative Ability ◽  
Alternative Measures

In recent years, universities and secondary schools have increasingly used the ACTFL/ETS Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) to measure the ability of learners to communicate in a foreign language. This article discusses the OPI in relation to current models of communicative skills and argues that the OPI fails to measure important aspects of communicative ability. Two Situation Tests, one written and one oral, are proposed as alternative measures of communicative ability and are described in detail. The two tests as well as the OPI were administered to American university students who had spent a year abroad studying French. This article reports on the changes in the communicative skills of the students during the year after their return to the United States. Statistical comparisons between the OPI and the Situation Tests are presented showing that the OPI is primarily a measure of grammatical competence. The article concludes with the claim that Situation Tests can provide a more complete assessment of communicative ability than the OPI.

scholarly journals The effect of vocabulary size in oral productions on the speaking proficiency of EFL learners

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 150-154
Author(s):  
Ehsan Kazemi
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Oral Proficiency ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Efl Learners ◽  
Oral Proficiency Interview ◽  
Speaking Proficiency ◽  
Freshman Students ◽  
Listening And Speaking ◽  
Experimental Group

This study investigates the effect of using a bigger vocabulary size in oral classroom presentations on the speaking proficiency of students in English as a foreign language. The study was conducted with 30 freshman students doing their listening and speaking course in Semnan University. For the entire course of 12 weeks, the students in the experimental group were asked to present their productions in terms of the vocabulary they employed, which was also the focus of the teacher’s evaluation in each session. At the end of the course, they were interviewed for their proficiency in speaking. The descriptive and inferential calculations were done based on a modified version of an oral proficiency interview scale suggested by Penny Ur. The answers were recorded and their fluency and accuracy were graded. The results suggest that students with a vocabulary-rich production improved their speaking proficiency in English more than other students did.   Keywords: Vocabulary size, speaking proficiency, production, fluency, accuracy, interview.    

MLA Foreign Language Proficiency Tests for Teachers and Advanced Students

PMLA ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 77 (4-Part2) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Wilmarth H. Starr
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
American Association ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Foreign Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
Foreign Languages ◽  
Modern Language Association ◽  
Language Program ◽  
Modern Language ◽  
South Central

I. Brief History of the Project: Since 1952, the Foreign Language Program of the Modern Language Association of America, responding to the national urgency with regard to foreign languages, has been engaged in a vigorous campaign aimed in large part at improving foreign-language teaching in our country.In 1955, as one of its activities, the Steering Committee of the Foreign Language Program formulated the “Qualifications for Secondary School Teachers of Modern Foreign Languages,” a statement which was subsequently endorsed for publication by the MLA Executive Council, by the Modern Language Committee of the Secondary Education Board, by the Committee on the Language Program of the American Council of Learned Societies, and by the executive boards or councils of the following national and regional organizations: National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations, American Association of Teachers of French, American Association of Teachers of German, American Association of Teachers of Italian, American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, Central States Modern Language Teachers Association, Middle States Association of Modern Language Teachers, New England Modern Language Association, Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Northwest Conference on Foreign Language Teaching, Philological Association of the Pacific Coast, Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, South Atlantic Modern Language Association, and South-Central Modern Language Association.

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