Other Resources

ACTFL 21st Century Skills Map:   Provides educators, administrators and policymakers with concrete examples of how 21st Century Skills can be integrated into core subjects.

ACTFL Performance Descriptors:    The ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners are designed to describe language performance that is the result of explicit instruction in an instructional setting. These Performance Descriptors reflect how language learners perform whether learning in classrooms, online, through independent project-based learning, or in blended environments. 

ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines:    The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines are a description of what individuals can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context. For each skill, these guidelines identify five major levels of proficiency: Distinguished, Superior, Advanced, Intermediate, and Novice.

World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages:   The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages define the central role of world languages in the learning career of every student. The five goal areas of the Standards establish an inextricable link between communication and culture, which is applied in making connections and comparisons and in using this competence to be part of local and global communities.  The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages create a roadmap to guide learners to develop competence to communicate effectively and interact with cultural competence to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.

Alignment of World Readiness Standards to Common Core:    The Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts (ELA) and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects contains four strands: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening, and Language.  These four strands are represented in the World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages by the Communication standards (interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational) and the level of proficiency demonstrated.   In addition, the standards of the other four goals areas for learning languages – Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities – also support and are aligned with the Common Core.  These standards describe the expectations to ensure all students are college-, career-, and world-ready.

NCSSFL- ACTFL Can-Do Benchmarks:   The NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements are self-assessment checklists used by language learners to assess what they “can do” with language in the Interpersonal, Interpretive, and Presentational modes of communication. These modes of communication are defined in the National Standards for 21st Century Language Learning and organized in the checklist into the following categories: Interpersonal (Person-to-Person) Communication, Presentational Speaking (Spoken Production), Presentational Writing (Written Production), Interpretive Listening, and Interpretive Reading.

NCSSFL Linguafolio:    A proficiency-based, learner-centered, formative assessment tool that empowers learners to manage their own language learning, provides a place for learners to collect evidence showing their growth, and facilitates language learning in and outside classroom. It was developed by members of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) and is based on the European Language Portfolio (ELP) and the NCSSFL-ACTFL Can-Do Statements. The Can-Do statements are organized according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) proficiency levels and sublevels.  LinguaFolio® consists of three parts:  biography (information about a learner’s language background), dossier (collection of work samples) and passport (snapshot of experiences and competencies in different languages).

LOTE Teacher Resource Links

ACL - American Classical League                                                               https://www.aclclassics.org/
CAL - Center for Applied Linguistics                                                          http://www.cal.org/
CALICO - Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium         https://www.calico.org/
FL Teach - Foreign Language Teaching Forum                                        http://web.cortland.edu/flteach/
JSEALT – Journal of Southeast Asian Language Teaching                      http://www.seasite.niu.edu/jsealt/
NAPH - National Association of Professors of Hebrew                          http://www.naphhebrew.org/
NCLRC - National Capital Language Resource Center                            http://www.nclrc.org/
New York State Education Department                                                    http://www.nysed.gov/
U. S. Department of Education                                                                   http://www.ed.gov/
ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and linguistics                                  http://www.cal.org/what-we-do/projects/eric

World Language Teaching Requirements:   A link to an online search feature that allows you to identify the specific requirements you must meet for any given certificate.

NYS Foreign Language in Elementary Grades (FLES) Programs:    The early study of a second language offers many benefits for students including academic achievement, positive attitudes toward diversity, flexibility in thinking, sensitivity to language, and increases in self-esteem and creativity.  The youngest brains have the greatest aptitude for absorbing language and that someone who is bilingual at a young age will have an easier time learning a third or fourth language later on.