Proficiency-Based Second Language Assessment
The College of Liberal Arts (CLA) at the University of Minnesota has long been involved in proficiency-based assessment in second languages. CLA has established an entrance standard for students entering the college and a graduation standard for all students seeking a bachelor of arts degree. Entrance proficiency tests are administered in French, German, and Spanish--languages commonly taught at the secondary level. At present, graduation proficiency tests are administered in 25 languages to certify completion of the language requirement for graduation.
Background
In 1986, the University of Minnesota's College of Liberal Arts instituted a new foreign language requirement based upon language proficiency. Prior to that time, students fulfilled their language requirement by completing a proscribed number of language courses or a combination of language courses and civilization/culture courses. The new language requirement began with French, German, and Spanish, which are the languages most commonly taught in secondary institutions in the State of Minnesota. The language teaching professionals who initiated the new language policy at the University of Minnesota did so in part with the hope of creating a paradigm shift to a proficiency-oriented approach to language instruction at the K-12 level throughout the state.
The CLA language policy requires students to pass batteries of proficiency tests developed in accordance with the proficiency guidelines published by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). If students intend to complete their language requirement in French, German, or Spanish, they must pass entrance tests in reading, writing, and listening (or start in a first-semester course), and pass graduation tests in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The original entrance tests were developed to assess students' reading and listening proficiency at the Intermediate-Low level, and writing proficiency at the Novice-High level. In 1996, the Intermediate-Low level was adopted for all three modalities for entrance. The French, German, and Spanish graduation tests assess students' reading and listening proficiency at the Intermediate-High level, and writing and speaking proficiency at the Intermediate-Mid level.
Students entering the College of Liberal Arts who have previously studied French, German, or Spanish must pass the entrance tests if they wish to enroll in second year courses in those languages. If they receive a score below the passing cutoff, they must enroll in a first year course.
Once the language testing program was running smoothly with the most commonly taught languages, other language departments developed graduation proficiency tests as well. Entrance tests are not yet feasible in other languages because of the relative rarity of finding less commonly taught languages across K-12 systems.
Today, twenty-five languages at the University of Minnesota require students to pass graduation tests in order to fulfill their graduation requirement. In most cases, the University of Minnesota's language proficiency tests are based on the ACTFL proficiency guidelines.
The languages at the University of Minnesota requiring passage of a graduation proficiency test are:
American Sign Language Greek (Classical) Marathi Arabic Greek (Modern) Norwegian Chinese Hebrew Ojibwe Dakota Hindi Polish Danish Irish Portuguese Dutch Italian Russian Finnish Japanese Spanish French Latin Swedish German
To assess and improve the quality of the CLA language proficiency tests, the Second Language Assessment Team at the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) performed qualitative and quantitative analyses of the French, German, and Spanish tests in use since 1986. This was the first step in an ongoing effort to improve the University of Minnesota's assessment instruments.
The results of the Second Language Assessment Team's investigation lay the groundwork for decisions made by CARLA and the Minnesota Articulation Project (MNAP). CARLA and MNAP collaborated on the development of new French, German, and Spanish assessment instruments at the entrance level, and made the decision to raise the standard to the Intermediate-Low level on the ACTFL scale in all modalities (speaking, writing, listening, and reading). To date, new instruments have been developed, and extensively field tested, in speaking, writing, and reading. These instruments are grouped under the name Minnesota Language Proficiency Assessments (mlpa).
