Proficiency testing in French: Post-secondary results informing the K-16 curriculum

Thursday, September 27, 2018
1:25 - 2:15 p.m.
Jones 35

This presentation reports on a statistical analysis of data gathered at the University of Minnesota on undergraduate students of French during the Proficiency Assessment for Curricular Enhancement (PACE) project. The analysis focused on three themes:

1. The role language study prior to university has on proficiency
2. The student background for achieving “advancedness” 
3. The accuracy of students’ French proficiency self-assessment scores

Results show that language study in secondary schools play a role in advancing proficiency. The presentation will conclude with a discussion of several factors that may contribute to advancedness, and a possible avenue for improving listening proficiency. Come hear these insights and add to the discussion of French student proficiency which Brian Barnett and Sean Killackey first presented in July at the American Association of Teachers of French (AATF) convention on the island of Martinique.

Presenters: Brian Barnett and Sean Killackey, Department of French and Italian