This course is designed to examine what proficiency is, what constitutes proficiency in a second or foreign language, and how we, Foreign Language (FL) educators can adapt our pedagogical practice to help our students reach the proficiency goals that are laid out for them. To achieve this, we will first become familiar with who we are as L2 educators and the contexts (institutional, cultural, social, etc.) in which we are situated. Then we will engage with various theoretical frameworks that can inform our definition of proficiency and its different components. Finally, we will spend the majority of the session working on instructional design strategies to “teach for proficiency.” In this sense, this course will dovetail with the assessment course as the two are linked by the framework of backward design.
In this course, we will:
- demonstrate an understanding of our position as language educators
- define proficiency and its various components
- examine effective pedagogical practices to help students achieve proficiency
- design teaching activities aimed at achieving proficiency goals
- examine how instructional design aligns with proficiency goals
- familiarize ourselves with – and utilize – a wide variety of technological tools
- develop and foster collaborative practices among L2 educators
Students enrolled in the course will:
- contribute to the course conversation
- develop an (online) portfolio of proficiency-oriented learning tasks appropriate for the K-12 context
- critique each other’s work
- revise their own work accordingly
- Teacher: Sebastien Dubreil