Search

Programs that prepare beginning foreign language teachers may seek national recognition through the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), which require a minimum level of Advanced Low (AL) on the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). This study describes the creation and validation of a self-assessment rubric that foreign language teacher candidates could use to compare their oral proficiency level with the Advanced Low (AL) level. To create the rubric, descriptors taken directly from the AL level narrative in the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines were used and then expanded to add specificity, resulting in the Self-Assessment Rubric for Advanced Low Level (SARAL). Results from the application of SARAL were compared to actual OPI scores obtained from the 32 teacher candidates participating in the study. A two-way Chi-square coefficient by Phi analysis was computed to assess the relationship between the ratings obtained by the SARAL and those obtained from results on the OPI. A significant difference (<.01) between the two assessments was found. According to this statistical analysis, the rubric presented here can be considered to have a moderate-to-high validity index (.631, p < .01). Given the positive results of the study, foreign language teacher preparation programs could adopt this rubric to help candidates become more aware of their current oral proficiency level so they can chart their path toward achieving the AL level in an inexpensive and practical way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]