MLA Foreign Language Proficiency Tests for Teachers and Advanced Students

PMLA ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 77 (4-Part2) ◽  
pp. 31-42
Author(s):  
Wilmarth H. Starr

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.

English Today ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Edwards

A review of foreign-language teaching in relation to the predominance of English in Europe and in the world at large.The theme of a conference of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (part of the Modern Language Association) in 2000 was the future of language teaching and learning. My discussion here is based upon remarks made in Phoenix.


10.29007/wzmn ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Adams ◽  
Laura Cruz-García

This paper presents some of the findings from research carried out among language teachers on translation and interpreting (T&I) degree courses in Spain, who responded to a questionnaire aiming to obtain a clearer idea of how foreign language teaching in this field of studies differed from approaches in other areas. The main purpose was to compile data based on actual practice, rather than theoretical notions. While the questions posed tended to be framed in such a way as to draw conclusions more for translation than for interpreting, a number of them were conducive to eliciting responses relating to aural and oral performance. Our paper will set forth the ensuing findings that can be applied to the development of language- and culture-based competences for subsequent interpreting courses and practices, as well as exploring possible further areas of study in the area of the teaching of both foreign languages and the mother tongue based on the specific language competences required in the different modalities of interpreting. We are, of course, immensely grateful to all those teachers who took the time and trouble to answer our questions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Petra Besedová ◽  
Karolína Soukupová ◽  
Kristýna Štočková

IMPORTANCE OF THE DIDACTICS OF NON-LINGUISTIC DISCIPLINES IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING Learning does not mean anything but learning with all your senses and feelings. The young generation lives nowadays in a complex media world to which foreign language didactics also has to respond. Educators and teachers should use numerous materials that do not only develop language skills, but also conveycultural approaches. The teaching of non-linguistic disciplines plays a key role in foreign language teaching, and foreign language teaching is currently very modern in its cultural context. The paper attempts to outline the existence of the so-called didactics of non-linguistic disciplines in foreign language teaching in the Czech Republic. On the basis of a questionnaire survey among foreign language teachers, the extent to which foreign language teachers are confronted with the content of didactics of non-language subjects was examined. The authors were also interested whether there are differences between teachers of different foreign languages (English, German, Russian, French), and which preferences teachers of these foreign languages manifest when choosing their teaching material. We believe that the content of the didactics of non-linguistic disciplines is an essential part of foreign language teaching and can greatly enrich this field.


PMLA ◽  
1965 ◽  
Vol 80 (2) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Donald D. Walsh

Our major activities this year, as in each of the past five years, have been undertaken either with foundation support or through contracts with the United States Office of Education under the National Defense Education Act. In February John Harmon became Director of the Materials Center, changing places with Glen Willbern, who became Director of Research. Under Mr. Willbern's direction and through a government contract we have just completed a survey of modern-foreign-language enrollments in junior and senior colleges as of the fall of 1963. We are currently negotiating several contracts through Title VI of the National Defense Education Act. The first is to gather statistics on offerings and enrollments in all foreign languages in public and non-public secondary schools. The second is to make a survey of current college enrollments in all foreign languages. Since gathering statistics on the classical languages is not a justifiable expenditure of national defense funds, the Modern Language Association will pay out of its own funds the proportion of the total cost needed to gather the facts on Latin and Greek in schools and colleges.


Author(s):  
Oleksandra Borzenko

The article reveals the features of professional improvement of foreign language communicative competence of foreign language teachers in the European Union, which is the result of the development of European integration, globalization and information processes. Emphasis is placed on the importance of professional development of teachers and the need for changes related to the development of new goals in teaching foreign languages with the new up-to-date innovative teaching aids. It is determined that foreign language teachers of European countries are constantly looking for and actively apply in practice innovative methods, modern information technologies, as well as distance learning in language teaching. It is noted that an essential feature of modern innovation processes in the field of education and upbringing is their technologicalization – strict compliance with the content and sequence of stages of the implementation of innovations. Among all new technical aids for foreign language teaching, the computer is an essential component of the educational process, which has one of the most significant influences on the course of teaching. New up-to-date approaches to the formation of foreign language communicative competence in the foreign language teaching put forward new requirements for the professionalism of the teacher, his/her qualifications. It is determined that the improvement of foreign language competence of the foreign language teacher is influenced by the properties of his/her personality, general and professional competence, which is provided by a combination of knowledge of didactics, linguistics, methods of teaching foreign languages, cultural studies and creativity, professional mobility, continuous self-development. Foreign language teachers of the European Union improve their professionalism through various forms of education. The views of scientists on the research problem are characterized. Conclusions and prospects for the use of further development of the study are made.


PMLA ◽  
1954 ◽  
Vol 69 (4-Part2) ◽  
pp. 22-25
Author(s):  
J.H.F.

Since its organization fifteen years ago, the Commission on Trends in Education, a standing committee of the Modern Language Association of America, has been concerned about the increasingly unfortunate consequences of the monolingualism of most American college graduates. Mastery of the English language and of English or American literary studies must remain forever provincial to those lacking a knowledge of foreign languages, and it is surely important, in peace as in war, to be able to communicate directly with other peoples. The Commission on Trends in Education is therefore enthusiastically supporting the Foreign Language Program of the Modern Language Association in its study of our linguistic inadequacies and its attempt to remedy them.


PMLA ◽  
1961 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-14
Author(s):  
Jack M. Stein

The improvement of foreign language teaching in America in the past ten years under the dynamic leadership of the Foreign Language Program of the MLA is a fact in which we can all rejoice. The added impetus, financial and otherwise, provided recently by the National Defense Education Act, has made it possible for the Program, instead of retrenching after the period of Foundation endowment was ended, to expand with unprecedented vigor and effectiveness. The FLP has been active over a broad spectrum of foreign language teaching and learning, but there are areas where its influence has not yet been felt. One of these is the preparation of college and university language teachers.


PMLA ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-36

Auspicious is the term by which I would describe the eighty-second year of the Modern Language Association. Our development has been satisfactory and our activities useful. But I have a sense of more important events impending for which the last year and the year or two yet to come are, essentially, preparation. I recall having had this feeling once before, between 1953 and 1955, during the first years of the Foreign Language Program. We had at that time the same stream of new faces through the office, the same effort to establish new lines of communication within the profession, the same struggle to achieve consensus and establish policy. That period saw the transformation of the MLA from a comfortable learned society into a professional association engaged in pedagogical and political activity relating to the modern foreign languages on a national scale. For the last ten years, we have been pursuing the leads and developing the policies laid down at that time. We have grown in the meanwhile from seven thousand to twenty-two thousand members; the headquarters staff has grown from four to forty-four; we have begun to add concern for the curriculum and teaching of English to our concern for the curriculum and teaching of the foreign languages.


HOW ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 105-118
Author(s):  
Carlos Rico-Troncoso

Talking about culture in the field of teaching foreign languages is not a new topic, but talking about interculture and interculturality is a subject that is now gaining a lot of interest in the field of ELT. Especially in the last two decades we have witnessed the growth of publications in this regard. We find all kinds of publications, but we are still having seeing the same fundamental questions that become relevant in these times of change: what we teach, who we teach it to, why we teach it, and how we teach it. These questions have always been relevant for language teachers, but today they have become even more meaningful since we are living in different times, times marked by unexpected political changes, strong economic pressures, and an unreasonable need to homogenize and standardize all the processes of teaching and learning. We must think collectively from new (postmodern) paradigms, empower ourselves, and begin to change our pedagogical practices. The aim of this paper is to share reflections on what foreign language teaching should be and how we should be thinking about culture and interculturality in our classrooms. This is an invitation to think about the need to interculturalize the teaching of the foreign language.


2021 ◽  
pp. 118-123
Author(s):  
Denysenko I.I. ◽  
Tarasiuk A.M.

The article is devoted to one of the advanced formats of foreign language teaching at high school, which effectively complements extramural and full-time forms of education – distance learning. The author emphasizes that the quality and effectiveness of foreign languages distance learning athigher educational establishments depends on effectively organized course; the pedagogical skills of teachers, participating in the educational process; the quality of applied methodical content.The main principles of foreign languages distance learning in higher education has been covered, the means of improving the quality and effectiveness of this educational format has been proposed, the key conceptual regulations of foreign languages distance learning has been determined. The article proposes a model for organizing foreign languages distance learning course for future specialists, describes a system to control and monitor the knowledge of all types of speech activities. It is also noted that independent work in the foreign languages distance course at high school should not be passive, but on the contrary, the student should be involved in active cognitive activities, not limited to acquiring foreign language skills, but necessarily includes their practical application; to solve certain communicative tasks in the future professional activity.The article concludes that in the process of organizing the foreign language distance learning course at high school, it is necessary to take into account not only the didactic characteristics and functions of multimedia and telecommunications as a technological basis, but also the conceptual trends of didactic distance learning as a component of modern education. In addition, it is necessary to take into account the specific nature of foreign language teaching in general.Key words: higher educational establishment, distance learning, multimedia means, independent work, information and communicative technologies, Internet, interactive engagement.


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