Educational Linguistics Paula Winke Susan M. Gass Editors Foreign Language Profi ciency in Higher Education Educational Linguistics Volume 37 Series Editor Francis M. Hult, Lund University, Sweden Editorial Board Marilda C. Cavalcanti, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Brazil Jasone Cenoz, University of the Basque Country, Spain Angela Creese, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Ingrid Gogolin, Universität Hamburg, Germany Christine Hélot, Université de Strasbourg, France Hilary Janks, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa Claire Kramsch, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A Constant Leung, King’s College London, United Kingdom Angel Lin, Simon Fraser University, Canada Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia Educational Linguistics is dedicated to innovative studies of language use and language learning. The series is based on the idea that there is a need for studies that break barriers. Accordingly, it provides a space for research that crosses traditional disciplinary, theoretical, and/or methodological boundaries in ways that advance knowledge about language (in) education. The series focuses on critical and contextualized work that offers alternatives to current approaches as well as practical, substantive ways forward. Contributions explore the dynamic and multi- layered nature of theory-practice relationships, creative applications of linguistic and symbolic resources, individual and societal considerations, and diverse social spaces related to language learning. The series publishes in-depth studies of educational innovation in contexts throughout the world: issues of linguistic equity and diversity; educational language policy; revalorization of indigenous languages; socially responsible (additional) language teaching; language assessment; first- and additional language literacy; language teacher education; language development and socialization in non- traditional settings; the integration of language across academic subjects; language and technology; and other relevant topics. The Educational Linguistics series invites authors to contact the general editor with suggestions and/or proposals for new monographs or edited volumes. For more information, please contact the publishing editor: Jolanda Voogd, Senior Publishing Editor, Springer, Van Godewijckstraat 30, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/5894 Paula Winke • Susan M. Gass Editors Foreign Language Proficiency in Higher Education Editors Paula Winke Susan M. Gass Second Language Studies Program Second Language Studies Program Michigan State University Michigan State University East Lansing, MI, USA East Lansing, MI, USA ISSN 1572-0292 ISSN 2215-1656 (electronic) Educational Linguistics ISBN 978-3-030-01005-8 ISBN 978-3-030-01006-5 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01006-5 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018961737 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Contents Part I Preliminaries Proficiency Testing in the U.S. Context: An Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Susan M. Gass and Paula Winke The Power of Performance-Based Assessment: Languages As a Model for the Liberal Arts Enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Benjamin Rifkin Part II Curriculum Vocabulary Size, Reading Proficiency and Curricular Design: The Case of College Chinese, Russian and Spanish. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Jane F. Hacking, Fernando Rubio, and Erwin Tschirner Picking Up the PACE: Proficiency Assessment for Curricular Enhancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Dan Soneson and Elaine E. Tarone Assessment and Curriculum for Heritage Language Learners: Exploring Russian Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Olga Kagan and Anna Kudyma Modern-Day Foreign Language Majors: Their Goals, Attainment, and Fit Within a Twenty-First Century Curriculum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Paula Winke, Susan M. Gass, and Emily S. Heidrich Part III Assessments and Learning Outcomes In Advanced L2 Reading Proficiency Assessments, Should the Question Language Be in the L1 or the L2?: Does It Make a Difference? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Troy L. Cox, Jennifer Bown, and Teresa R. Bell v vi Contents Proficiency vs. Performance: What Do the Tests Show? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Fernando Rubio and Jane F. Hacking Exploring the Relationship Between Self- Assessments and OPIc Ratings of Oral Proficiency in French . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Magda Tigchelaar Where Am I? Where Am I Going, and How Do I Get There?: Increasing Learner Agency Through Large-Scale Self Assessment in Language Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Gabriela Sweet, Sara Mack, and Anna Olivero-Agney Arabic Proficiency Improvement Through a Culture of Assessment . . . . . . 197 Katrien Vanpee and Dan Soneson A Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Skill Perspective on L2 Development in Study Abroad . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Dan E. Davidson and Jane Robin Shaw Part IV I nstructors and Learners Language Instructors Learning Together: Using Lesson Study in Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245 Beth Dillard U.S. Foreign Language Student Digital Literacy Habits: Factors Affecting Engagement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265 Jeffrey Maloney Linking Proficiency Test Scores to Classroom Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287 Charlene Polio Afterword and Next Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309 Margaret E. Malone Part I Preliminaries Proficiency Testing in the U.S. Context: An Introduction Susan M. Gass and Paula Winke Abstract The introductory chapter introduces the readers to The Language Flagship Proficiency Initiative in which institutions were charged with institutional- izing proficiency assessment practices that align student placement with course goals, document ways in which assessement results are integrated into foreign lan- guage programs, and share practices within the broader foreign language commu- nity. The chapter provides background on this project and summarizes the contents of the 14 chapters in the book. Keywords Proficiency Testing · The Language Flagship · Assessment · ACTFL · Foreign Language Curriculum · Instructors · Second Language Learners · Speaking · Listening · Reading In 2014, Michigan State University, along with the Universities of Minnesota and Utah, were awarded grants through The Language Flagship Proficiency Initiative to conduct foreign language proficiency assessments on their college campuses. The initiative was funded by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), a part of the Department of Defense. (Note that in 2012, NSEP merged with the Defense Language Office to form the Defense Language and National Security Education Office, otherwise known as DLNSEO). The grant program is under the umbrella of the Language Flagship program, and is intended to “integrate Flagship proficiency assessment practices and processes within existing high quality academic language programs. The purpose of this initiative is to introduce the Flagship proficiency assessment process to established academic foreign language programs to measure teaching and learning, and to evaluate the impact of such testing practices on teach- ing and learning” (p. 1, Request for Proposals, The Language Proficiency Flagship Initiative). The Language Flagship programs were established in 2000 with the express goal of creating programs that would move students to advanced language proficiency in S. M. Gass (*) · P. Winke Second Language Studies Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019 3 P. Winke, S. M. Gass (eds.), Foreign Language Proficiency in Higher Education, Educational Linguistics 37, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01006-5_1 4 S. M. Gass and P. Winke a select number of critical languages. Initially, the program served the graduate stu- dent population, but in 2006 moved toward a model of creating global professionals with high levels of proficiency, that is, Advanced or higher on the American Councils on the Teaching of Foreign Language (ACTFL) proficiency scale (ACTFL, 2012), which is equivalent in many respects to a level 3 proficiency level on the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) proficiency scale (http://www.govtilr.org). From their website (www.thelanguageflagship.org, retrieved 9/18/18) comes the following: “The Language Flagship graduates students who will take their place among the next generation of global professionals, commanding a superior level of proficiency in one of ten languages critical to U.S. national security and economic competitive- ness.” Assessment is, of course, an important part of any language program as a way of understanding curricular needs and of determining successes and shortcomings of language programs in meeting their goals (cf. Bernhardt, 2008, 2014). It was against this backdrop that the Language Flagship Program issued a call for institutions of higher education to partner with the Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO) “to create a viable process to assess profi- ciency learning in high quality, well-established academic language programs and to document the impact of introducing rigorous proficiency assessment on language pedagogy practice and outcomes” (p. 3, Request for Proposals, The Language Proficiency Flagship Initiative). For a broader understanding of the Language Flagship program, the interested reader is referred to Murphy and Evans-Romaine (2017), and for a more complete discussion of the history of the Flagship Program and its contextualization into issues related to foreign language instruction more generally, see Nugent and Slater (2017). Prior to 2014 the Language Flagship pro- grams had already had significant involvement with assessment and archived robust proficiency data from overseas study (see, in particular, Davidson, Garas, & Lekic, 2017). The data from Michigan State University and the Universities of Minnesota and Utah add to the already existing data from Flagship programs. Our mandates for this project were the following: • Institutionalize proficiency assessment practices that align student placement with course goals; • Document ways in which assessment results are integrated into foreign language programs (curriculum and teaching); • Share practices with others in the foreign language community. This book is an attempt to provide information about assessment practices and results from the three universities to whom funding was provided. We have expanded the scope to include experiences and reports from other institutions in order to pro- vide as broad a range of efforts to document language proficiency experiences and practices as possible. The three universities that are part of the original grant project have approached their assessments in different ways and with different languages. Despite the indi- vidual directions and research reports, they have worked collaboratively to create common questions on a background questionnaire (given to all test takers at all three universities) and to combine results from their testing of speaking, listening, and reading into a large anonymized database so as to begin the process of creating