Do you ever find yourself in a conversation where you tell someone that you are a foreign language teacher and the response is something like this, “I had 4 years of Spanish in high school, but I can’t speak a word now.” Clearly this traditional methodology has not been very effective. What can we do about this to make sure that 20 years from now our students are not saying the same thing?
ACTFL provides us with Core Practices that guide teachers toward teaching language proficiency rather than simply teaching about the target language. It comes down to providing students with opportunities to do something with the language and not just demonstrate what they know about the language. Take a look at the 6 ACTFL Core Practices below.
