Teaching and Learning to the Highest Levels of Language Proficiency - Sharings from the Journal of Distinguished Language Proficiency and More (Franke on Speaking Proficiency)
Available for download, article from JDLS 8: " Road Maps to Distinguished Speaking Proficiency" (Dr. Jack Franke, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center) Abstract: Although study abroad is viewed in the United States as sine qua non , the study abroad experience is not a panacea to achieve distinguished foreign language speaking proficiency. This study attempts to uncover how persistence, study abroad, motivation, and learner autonomy play into the pursuit of distinguished speaking proficiency. Using the theoretical framework of complexity theory and phenomenological design, the study utilizes interviews of four educators at an institute in the western United States as the primary instrument of data collection. This study investigates the roadmaps which successful foreign language educators have utilized to achieve distinguished speaking proficiency through interviews and documentary research. Data analysis of interviews with the ...