• Interpretive (an input mode, listening or visual)
• Interpersonal (an input and output mode where two or
more speakers have to negotiate to make a decision such
as determining where they should meet)
• Presentational (a one-way communication in speaking or
written mode that usually takes on more formal aspects
of language as the product is polished and rehearsed)
Little boys go from being squeamish about greeting a girl
puppet with a culturally appropriate kiss in September to
requesting she come out to visit the class by Thanksgiving.
In the most advanced programs today, students are no
longer being grouped by years of study, but rather by the
proficiency level they have demonstrated on internal and
external assessments. This gives students ownership of
their progress as they master the milestones on the road to
proficiency.
Just before the opening of school, Saint David’s and Sacred
Heart teachers participated in a Modified Oral Proficiency
Interview workshop. This training provided teachers with
actual experience in interviewing volunteer subjects and
how they would be rated by officially certified raters. Today,
two teachers at Saint David’s have chosen to embark on the
year-long process of obtaining their official certification to
assess language levels. This gives the team one more option
in its toolkit for assessing students and creating in-house
assessments tailored to program content.
Several staff members have already been certified in the
Student Oral Proficiency Assessment (SOPA), an interview
process specifically developed for Kindergarten through
Eighth Grade students. The SOPA has been conducted
annually with a small cohort of students as they progressed
from that first Kindergarten class. In the past two years, we
have also started collecting data on all students using the
computerized STAMP 4Se and/or the AAPPL test, two
instruments that offer a snapshot of student proficiency and
strategies for students to “level up.”
It has been a wonderful capstone to our Spanish FLES
program for many boys to participate in the Spain Study Tour
to Salamanca, now in it is eighth year for rising eighth graders
(June 2018). Spending two weeks in a full immersion setting
in Spain has given the boys the chance to test themselves and
stretch to new levels of proficiency. They also encounter new
Casqueria: All animal products are good eating in Spain.
14 • Saint David’s Magazine