"According to my transcripts, I successfully completed the required four semesters of Spanish language in college. However, today I have no working knowledge of the language."
-Peter, college graduate from Ohio
(read more about Peter here)
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As a language educator, hearing Peter's words saddens me deeply. Being able to communicate in more than one language - and doing it well - is invaluable. Language provides a glimpse into different cultures, brings new perspectives, helps to solve problems, inspires critical thinking, promotes economic opportunity, and builds mutual understanding of and community with others (ACTFL, 1996), among a host of other benefits. For Peter, the language classroom is where all this was supposed to happen. While his life is obviously just fine today, it is a crushing disappointment that so much time in the classroom yielded little to no real target language ability.
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For other students, the consequence of not learning a language can be more serious. For example, as I alluded to in the home page, I teach ESL to refugees, immigrants, and international students in a community college setting. Our 25-course sequence saw an over 400% increase in student enrollment from 2008-2016. We quickly witnessed a sizable number of students not meeting our proficiency benchmarks as they passed through our courses. The result: many failed their subsequent coursework, lost their financial aid, and were forced to work more to afford fewer classes. For a population for whom academic English is a means to a more prosperous future, reduced access to education can be devastating.
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Why might students be completing language classes without much (or the required) communicative ability? While the answer to this question is complex, students are often faced with significant barriers beyond an individual's control. In the U.S., for example, there is not much incentive to learn two languages; it is simply not a priority for many students, parents, or even educators themselves. School curriculum rarely offers language in elementary school, making it exponentially more challenging for language acquisition to occur later. And, of course, language learning takes an immense amount of time and effort, which students often do not have.
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But what if there are barriers to language learning that educators can work to break down? As an instructor, I have reflected a lot on the essence of this question. Is there something I can be doing better to help students acquire the language - not just learn it - in class? Are students in language classrooms today learning about the language as opposed to application of the language? Memorizing phrases and facts to pass the tests? Or conjugating - a lot - of verbs? Are they engaged in activities?
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"Of 900,000 students surveyed, only 50% of students were engaged in school."
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Or, and here's what really interests me, what if traditional grading structures - you know, points, percentages, and weighted categories - are just not working? For example, it is probable that students can pass a class with a traditional grading structure without the abilities needed, despite valid assessments or how an instructor may adjust weighted categories or point distribution. Click the image to see how a student can slip through the cracks:
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Click here for more details.
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"A number or a grade provides absolutely no information to a student beyond a vague sense that he or she has pleased or displeased the teacher, or the assumption that some other students have done better or worse"
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Such concerns, if valid, have led me to the following set of questions: Is there another way to approach language learning in the classroom? Perhaps an alternative structure grading, one that is more competency-focused? One that eliminates hyperinflation of homework or participation expectations? A way to implement critical notions of proficiency? A way to actively engage students? A better way to connect grades to a course's student learning outcomes? A way in which we more easily identify a student's weaknesses and strengths? If something like this existed, would it challenge the status quo? How would students respond? Would it even be feasible to take on?
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"In order to acquire second language communicative competence, students need to be actively involved in the learning process"
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These questions led me on a years-long journey in which I experimented with various competency-based approaches to learning in my face-to-face classroom. Click the image to view how I have experimented with alternative grading structures in my language classes over the years:
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As I zeroed-in on what I thought was my answer, I had two premonitions: (1) there seemed to be a significant gap between my needs and available resources, and (2) what I was doing could not only benefit Kirkwood ESL instructors but perhaps a wide range of language educators. After I pitched my idea to Kirkwood, they decided to fund my work through an Endowed Faculty Chair award. The task: to design a competency-based model of language teaching and an onboarding process for instructors.
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Not knowing where this project would take me exactly, I feel like I am going in the right direction. In fact, in a recent survey I ran for this project, instructors most commonly listed traditional grading systems as one of the top two factors that prevents successful language learning among their students (see survey results). And critically, instead of my students focusing over an arbitrary numeric grade that supposedly represents their ability, they ask, "Ryan, on which outcome(s) do I still need to study, practice, and demonstrate competency in order to communicate better?"
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I know not everyone can be - or will be - successful with another language. That's just not realistic. I what I am proposing in this website is no silver bullet. But, if there is something different that educators can be doing, don't we owe it to our students to try?
You and I are products of our prior and current educational environments; traditional grading is what we are comfortable with. But what separates great teachers from the mediocre is holding not only your students - but yourself - to the highest of standards (Whitaker, 2004). As world language instructors, we are innately programmed to constantly seek ways to improve our students' language proficiency in the target language, even if that means going "against the wind".
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Click below to learn about how you can hold yourself to a higher standard and start doing something different to help your students.
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