The Case for Nativelike Foreign Language Proficiency: Why Near-Native Language Proficiency Is Not an Elite, But a Necessary Goal
When Boris Shekhtman and Betty Lou Leaver were searching for a publisher for their book on reaching ILR 4, Developing Professional Level Foreign Langauge Proficiency, a reviewer for one of the traditional American publishers suggested not taking on the book because "no one needs near-native proficiency." She then pointed to herself as a teacher of French whose proficiency was ILR 2, and she was considered a brilliant and successful teacher. She did not need anything higher than that, and neither did anyone else.
Well, she was wrong, and fortunately Cambridge University Press had the foresight to realize that the topic was important, known to few (which is why that French teacher had such low proficiency) and would someday be sought-after information. They wanted the seminal work; they got it. And it has been the go-to work for more than two decades now.
The reviewer’s comment reflected a long‑standing and deeply limiting assumption in American language education: that “good enough” proficiency is sufficient for every professional domain. It was an assumption born not of evidence, but of the fact that most teachers, program designers, and even administrators had never seen ILR 4 proficiency, never mind understood what it made possible. When one’s own ceiling is ILR 2, ILR 2 feels like the sky.
But the world was already proving otherwise. Government agencies were quietly struggling to find personnel who could operate in high‑stakes environments where nuance, inference, cultural agility, and linguistic precision were not luxuries but job requirements. Diplomats, intelligence analysts, journalists, negotiators, and international business leaders were all encountering situations in which ILR 2 or 3 simply collapsed under pressure. The gap between “classroom fluency” and “professional performance” was costing institutions time, money, and credibility.
Shekhtman and Leaver understood that gap intimately. They had trained learners who needed to brief ambassadors, interpret for heads of state, conduct interviews in conflict zones, and read between the lines of foreign‑language texts where the meaning lived not in the words themselves but in what was not said. They knew that near‑native proficiency was not an indulgence; it was a professional necessity. And they knew that the field had no roadmap for getting there.
That is precisely why Cambridge’s decision mattered. They recognized that the absence of ILR 4 practitioners was not proof that ILR 4 was unnecessary—it was proof that the profession had never been given the tools to produce them. By publishing Developing Professional Level Foreign Language Proficiency, Cambridge invested in the future of serious language training rather than the comfort of familiar, low‑ambition paradigms.
The result speaks for itself. For more than twenty years, the book has shaped government programs, influenced academic thinking, and provided a lifeline to instructors who finally had a way to help learners break through the plateau that had defined American language education for decades. It became the standard because it filled a void no one else had even acknowledged.
image and some content/research generated by AI
For the seminal work on developing professional level foreign language proficiency, click HERE.
post inspired by the book, Practices That Work, edited by Professor Thomas Jesús Garza, who reminds us that "fluency isn’t just about knowing the rules — it’s about knowing your patterns."
Book Description
"Practices That Work is an excellent resource for both new and experienced foreign-language instructors, as well as for foreign-language learners. The volume is a compilation of short, thematically organized articles written by numerous experts in the field of foreign-language teaching who share invaluable insights about bringing learners to high-level professional proficiency in world languages. While Practices That Work offers a plethora of effective techniques for instructors, it also provides deep understanding of the learning process, which will benefit the development of learners' development of self-awareness and autonomy."\
"...every article in the volume gives excellent suggestions for further reading on the topic."
"Practices That Work is a valuable resource for both instructors and learners. The volume provides insightful guidance and diverse methodologies for achieving Professional proficiency in world languages."
Read the full review HERE.
For more posts about Tom and this book, click HERE.
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