Texas Language Center Symposium Explores 21st Century Views on Language Learning

The Texas Language Center and the Foreign Service Institute are hosting a symposium and workshop focusing on proficiency in languages other than English.

Since the creation of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines in 1986, many in the language teaching profession have used these descriptors to define the learner’s functional capacity to use the language studied. Critics, however, cite both the difficulty of assessing competence through the oral proficiency interview, as well as the descriptors inability to take into account individual learner differences, as limitations of the guidelines. This symposium and workshop aim to bring our understanding of proficiency-based instruction into the 21st century with first-hand recommendations and practices from specialists from the School of Language Studies at the Foreign Service In- stitute, US Department of State.