As our understanding of language learning changes, so does our pedagogy. ACTFL proficiency standards are helpful guides for teachers. They detail what students can do at each level of proficiency so we can set expectations and create meaningful learning activities to match our students level and reach goals.
Novice is the first level of language acquisition. This will be part 1 of several posts about the ACTFL Proficiency Standards! Stay tuned for more information about the Intermediate and Advanced levels in the coming posts!
Novice Sub-Levels
The ACTFL proficiency standards have 3 sub-levels within the Novice rating.
Novice-Low: Students can barely communicate. They may only be able to say singular words and may understand almost nothing.
Novice-Mid: At this proficiency level, students can only communicate with highly predictable words and phrases.
Novice-High: Students rely heavily on memorized phrases, but may begin to create their own messages. Interpersonal communication breaks down quickly, especially when topics become unfamiliar.
ACTFL Proficiency Level Hallmarks
When you are thinking about what your students can do and how they sound, novice students are at the very beginning of their language learning. One of the joys of teaching Novice students is that they move through the 3 sublevels very quickly, and it’s easy and rewarding to highlight their progress!
To communicate, novice students use things like:
-memorized phrases
-lists of vocabulary
-formulaic language
This is no surprise! Their vocabulary is limited to their exposure to the language, and though not fancy or super correct, students CAN make themselves understood and also understand others at this ACTFL proficiency level!
Calendar talk, meet and greet, simple commands, counting, predictable questions with simple answers are all great ways to reinforce memorized phrases and chunks of language.
Keep Information Highly Familiar
When teaching Novice students, ACTFL reminds us that what we’re communicating about should be highly familiar to students.
I find that introducing new vocabulary in small chunks is highly effective. Using and reusing the same set of vocab helps students understand and produce without being overwhelmed. It makes them feel successful and capable!
Using pictures to help illustrate is helpful. Writing sentences starters on the board helps! And using chat mats or short, organized vocabulary lists is also a scaffold that can lead to success.
Many teachers also create a word wall in their classroom where they hand high frequency words and phrases.
Where Do Novice Students Struggle in the ACTFL Proficiency Standards?
When students reach the Novice-High proficiency level, their next step is Intermediate. ACTFL tells us that in order for students to be at Intermediate, they must be able to function in that standard almost all the time. So, that means our Novice students are using complete sentences in the present tense. They are mostly using memorized phrases and formulaic sentences that has little originality.
But they are also beginning to create with language! As their vocabulary increases, they will begin to take more risks to express themselves in a more personal and more akin to what they are thinking in their most comfortable language. At this stage, there will be many mistakes. We will hear/see students forgetting to conjugate verbs, have words that are missing, not use the right time frame, etc. And of course, when the topics veer off what they are highly familiar with, they will struggle to understand or communicate.
How Do I Use the ACTFL Proficiency Standards?
Understanding what students are able to do as well as what they are not able to do enables their teachers to set realistic expectations. We can design our learning tasks and our assessments in a way that celebrates communication and sets students up for success!
We can explain to our students what we expect and model the differences between levels and sublevels. We can use these standards on rubrics when we grade them and also ask students to grade themselves or their peers.
Resources
Seal of Biliteracy Spanish Presentational Practice Writing AAPPL Test
Spanish Seal of Biliteracy AAPPL Test Interpersonal Speaking
Spanish Seal of Biliteracy AAPPL Test Interpretive Reading Practice
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