SLA and Pedagogy: Teachers' Roles, Proficiency, and Performance

Explaining grammar rules so learners can apply them correctly

Drilling students on memorized phrases and patterns through repetition

Providing opportunities for purposeful interpretation and expression of meaning

Following a textbook chapter-by-chapter to ensure full coverage of structures

Because language learners do not need any practice at all

Because language acquisition does not depend primarily on showing learners how to do something and having them master it through repetitive imitation

Because language teachers are less trained than music or dance teachers

Because language cannot be learned outside of a classroom

Most learners cannot memorize more than a few words at a time

Speakers frequently produce utterances they have never heard or read before

Studies show repetition slows down language acquisition

Children never repeat what adults say to them

That teachers should design syllabi around a fixed developmental order of grammar structures

That learners follow a predictable order of acquiring certain linguistic features that is not random and is not caused by explicit instruction

That only advanced learners have developmental sequences

That developmental sequences apply only to reading skills

It helps teachers decide the exact order in which to present grammar structures

It helps teachers adapt their expectations of how progress can be seen in something other than an increase in accuracy

It allows teachers to skip teaching certain structures entirely

It proves that explicit instruction is the fastest route to acquisition

Memorizing long lists of vocabulary grouped by topic

Meaningful content and communication rather than grammar structures

A strict sequence of verb tenses presented from easiest to most complex

Daily translation drills between the first and target languages

That teachers should not teach any grammar at all

That explicit instruction does not automatically result in acquisition, since acquisition is a mostly implicit process

That students are unwilling to learn grammar

That learners never benefit from any kind of explanation

Using more mnemonic devices and shortcuts

Having students memorize longer vocabulary lists each week

Creating more opportunities for meaningful and purposeful communication, both inside and outside the classroom

Covering more chapters of the textbook in less time

They can produce only memorized chunks and word lists on familiar topics

They can produce connected paragraphs on abstract topics with high accuracy

They can understand and produce sentences, mostly in present tense, on topics of personal relevance

They can support opinions and hypothesize about unfamiliar abstract concepts fluently

Can narrate and describe in past, present, and future tenses

Mainly uses memorized chunks and recombined material on concrete, familiar topics

Can support opinions about abstract topics with great fluency

Is fully comprehensible to anyone, regardless of background

All native speakers are automatically rated as superior

Monolingually raised native speakers are not necessarily rated superior, and many are rated at advanced-mid or advanced-high

Only heritage speakers are ever rated as advanced-low

The guidelines are designed specifically to compare native and non-native speakers

They can barely sustain the intermediate level and never show glimpses of advanced

They sustain the level fairly comfortably and only occasionally show glimpses of advanced

They are so comfortable at the intermediate level that they exhibit characteristics of advanced most of the time but cannot sustain advanced

They have already reached advanced-low and can sustain advanced performance

Intermediate-low uses more vocabulary and details than intermediate-high

Intermediate-low uses many more verb tenses than intermediate-high

Intermediate-high uses more complex sentence structures and details, producing a more connected response

Intermediate-high avoids the topic entirely, while intermediate-low completes it

Proficiency is about classroom practice, while performance is about real-world use

Proficiency refers to what a person can do with the language in spontaneous, real-world contexts, while performance describes what a learner can do after classroom practice on similar tasks

Proficiency is judged only through grammar tests, while performance is judged only through oral interviews

Proficiency and performance mean exactly the same thing in the ACTFL framework

Completed classroom tasks that help learners acquire the language

Engaging with activities that develop the skills needed for similar real-world tasks

Memorized or scripted responses that have no connection to communication

Doing a class activity that mirrors a real-world task

To provide an exhaustive list of every activity students should do at each level

To serve as a complete curriculum guide for world language programs

To link performance indicators with proficiency benchmarks across the three modes of communication

To rank native and non-native speakers on a single scale

Design daily lessons with communicative goals that are measurable

Choose thematic units based on student interest alone

Set performance-based goals for the course and its units, tied to Can-Do Statements

Establish a realistic proficiency target, given the learners' starting point and the time available

Because proficiency is impossible to measure exactly

Because learners progress at different rates and a fixed endpoint would be unrealistic

Because the ACTFL guidelines prohibit stating a single target level

Because textbooks demand flexible targets

Networking with other teachers who teach similar age groups

Surveying students about their interests, while still exposing them to new ideas

Choosing a book or movie as the basis for exploring historical context, sociocultural analysis, and connections to current events

Picking topics strictly because they match a specific verb tense in the target language

That learners can answer true/false questions on the same topic throughout the course

That learners can do something only on the final exam

That learners can do something consistently, in different ways, and across a range of topics tied to the thematic units

That learners can perfectly conjugate every verb taught in the unit