Last week I dialed into the Language Testing Institute (LTI) of ACTFL in order to prove that I can, in fact, speak English.
This officially certifiable oral proficiency interview (OPI) by an ACTFL rater is a necessary step to becoming certified to conduct ACTFL OPIs. In addition to speaking hours interviewing and rating ESL speakers, I also need to prove that I meet the ACTFL guidelines for a superior level speaker.
The interview, which didn't make me nervous, but did make me curious due to the fact that I have only ever done this from the interviewer side, started 20 minutes late due to the interviewer's late conducting of the previous interview. But, since I knew what kinds of speech sample the interviewer needed to elicit from me, I think that we were able to make the conversation move along rather quickly, I was surprised to learn that the interview had only taken about 20 minutes (a typical superior level interview can take 30 minutes), but we had covered a variety of topics and had plenty of samples of superior level speech for her to analyze.
The results of the interview were posted today, and I am, in fact, a superior speaker of English. Surprise! I guess all these years of learning and practicing English have really paid off. What a relief.
Of course this is only one small step in this OPI experience. I still need to get the trainer's feedback from my practice round, and then I will have to work at collecting interviews for my certification round (where I actually have to do a good job as opposed to just learning as I did this summer). Here's hoping the trainer doesn't rush to send me the feedback. I've got enough projects to do.
Although I did accomplish to important tasks today: I got the integrated writing practice tasks sent to the programmer (for pilot testing next month) and I submitted my integrate tasks IRB application. It's all working out, despite my poor planning and procrastination.
Showing posts with label OPI. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OPI. Show all posts
Friday, October 19, 2007
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Moving forward
I heard back from IRB today. My request to extend my research has been granted. Of course now that I want to do a different (but related) study for my dissertation, I will need to submit a new IRB application.
Why start something new for my dissertation? I'm applying for assistant professor positions (to start next Fall) and one of them is looking for expertise in an area that I haven't focused on very much: oral assessment and listening/speaking pedagogy. Of course I had taught L/S classes, and I'm in the process of becoming OPI certified, but I haven't done much on this topic from a research perspective. So now's my chance.
Truth is, whatever an employer wants me to be an expert in, I can do it. I have only become focused on writing assessment and methodology because:
1) My thesis chair wanted to research it, so I did it for my thesis, and
2) My current job as the writing coordinator requires me to become an expert on it.
So if a potential position requires expertise in something else, I can do it. My revised dissertation project will:
1) Build on my current research,
2) Relate directly to what I do for my job anyway, and
3) Extend my expertise to include research on L/S assessment.
So we'll see how it goes. The fact is, if I want to be ready for these jobs that start Fall 2008, then I need to be all but done my research by then, which gives me less than a year to plan, conduct, and write my dissertation. Heh. Who knows? I could do it. Probably. Maybe. Yeah. And if nothing else, this job application process will motivate me to graduate ahead of schedule. And there's nothing bad about that idea.
Why start something new for my dissertation? I'm applying for assistant professor positions (to start next Fall) and one of them is looking for expertise in an area that I haven't focused on very much: oral assessment and listening/speaking pedagogy. Of course I had taught L/S classes, and I'm in the process of becoming OPI certified, but I haven't done much on this topic from a research perspective. So now's my chance.
Truth is, whatever an employer wants me to be an expert in, I can do it. I have only become focused on writing assessment and methodology because:
1) My thesis chair wanted to research it, so I did it for my thesis, and
2) My current job as the writing coordinator requires me to become an expert on it.
So if a potential position requires expertise in something else, I can do it. My revised dissertation project will:
1) Build on my current research,
2) Relate directly to what I do for my job anyway, and
3) Extend my expertise to include research on L/S assessment.
So we'll see how it goes. The fact is, if I want to be ready for these jobs that start Fall 2008, then I need to be all but done my research by then, which gives me less than a year to plan, conduct, and write my dissertation. Heh. Who knows? I could do it. Probably. Maybe. Yeah. And if nothing else, this job application process will motivate me to graduate ahead of schedule. And there's nothing bad about that idea.
Labels:
job application,
language testing,
listening/speaking,
OPI,
writing
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Working on a List
I'm doing my best to check items off of my To-Do list. Today, I sent a draft of my article off for faculty review, I emailed off my OPI materials, and I renewed my IRB application. I've got a variety of projects that I can work on this semester, but they are coming at the expense of other duties. In addition to projects and teaching, I ought to be doing more to train and support our teachers, but that isn't really happening. At this point I'm mostly expecting teachers to figure it out by working together or reaching out to me proactively. Hopefully I will catch up with my projects and book in time to support teachers.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
OPI practice round
Earlier this summer I participated in ACTFL oral proficiency interview training (see early June posts for more information). I am now in the process of applying for certification and am thus working on completing interviews for my practice round.
There are several interesting things that I have learned from participating in this process:
There are several interesting things that I have learned from participating in this process:
- This is a wide range of ability within one course level. In a given day, I can meet with three or four students from the same class/teacher. Although they were all placed in the same level (based on test scores from writing, reading, listening, speaking, and grammar), their range of speaking ability is remarkable. Some seem to peak beyond what our Center teaches for speaking skills, whereas those students' classmates can barely get out a coherent sentence on a simple topic. I suppose that is the nature of level placement based on a holistic decision based on all test scores.
- Just because students "know" grammar, does not mean that they use it. Level 4 students, for example, learn complex grammar patterns and can easily understand verb use in all major time frames. Yet many Level 4 students frequently make errors in any time from but the present, and even then many make basic subject-verb agreement errors. I wonder why it is that some students can quickly translate what they learn into what they use, and others have very week production skills even after prolonged exposure to the grammar.
- It is a difficult process to learn to be both a test creator and evaluator at the same time. ACTFL OPIs require the interviewer to develop the questions on the spur of the moment based on the flow of the conversation (and following basic structural patterns to cover a variety of topics and levels of difficulty). However, the dynamic nature of the interview does lend to its authenticity. It is a valuable learning experience for someone who is interesting in language assessment.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
ACT FULL
This week I have been attending ACTFL (american council for the teaching of foreign languages) training to become certified to conduct OPIs (oral proficiency interviews). The week-long training is only the start of the process; certification takes nearly a year after the week of training finishes.
It's been an valuable experience for many reasons:
It's been an valuable experience for many reasons:
- I've connected with a few friends from the Arabic department that are doing certification for their department
- I've met with language teachers from across the United States including New England, the Midwest, Great Lakes, and those who are internationals
- I've made connections between this training and my courses this semester such as evaluation and qualitative research
- I'm getting to know four of my coworkers better as we participate in training together
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