Language Proficiency
Language proficiency is “what an individual can do with language in terms of speaking, writing, listening, and reading in real-world situations in a spontaneous and non-rehearsed context” (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, 2012). Being proficient in a language means that you can use it in real life: you can use your linguistic and cultural knowledge functionally outside of the classroom.
In the BLA Arabic program, we focus on gaining language proficiency because the whole point of learning a language is to be able to use it in the real world! Increasing your language proficiency takes lots of practice, which means it's important to be patient with ourselves as we learn and remember that the more we practice and use the language, the more proficiency gains we make. It takes many years to reach advanced proficiency even in our first language, so we have to be patient as we work to gain advanced proficiency in Arabic.
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has a standard scale of proficiency levels that is used by high school and college language teachers across the U.S., and in study abroad programs. This scale is used in scoring standardized assessments in foreign languages, including the NEWL exam that Arabic 4 students take at BLA. We also use it regularly on class assessments and self-reflections. Below are some resources to learn more about the ACTFL proficiency levels.
In the BLA Arabic program, we focus on gaining language proficiency because the whole point of learning a language is to be able to use it in the real world! Increasing your language proficiency takes lots of practice, which means it's important to be patient with ourselves as we learn and remember that the more we practice and use the language, the more proficiency gains we make. It takes many years to reach advanced proficiency even in our first language, so we have to be patient as we work to gain advanced proficiency in Arabic.
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) has a standard scale of proficiency levels that is used by high school and college language teachers across the U.S., and in study abroad programs. This scale is used in scoring standardized assessments in foreign languages, including the NEWL exam that Arabic 4 students take at BLA. We also use it regularly on class assessments and self-reflections. Below are some resources to learn more about the ACTFL proficiency levels.
Source: NCSSFL-ACTFL Can Do Statements
Source: Path to Proficiency