AbstractThis chapter advocates the use of an aspirational framework for student-learning
outcomes that aligns the intellectual content of general education objectives with
the values expressed in the ACTFL National Standards for language study. Such
an approach emphasizes the benefits to language programs that can be realized
through clarity in expectations and the systematic, longitudinal evaluation of
outcomes. It also has far-reaching policy implications for foreign language programs,
which the authors explore. The chapter introduces and discusses a rubric
that models the connections between linguistic and intellectual skills. In addition,
outcomes benchmarks for most commonly taught languages and less commonly
taught language groups are proposed. The involvement of faculty SLA experts
(tenured or tenure-track) is seen as key to the process of effective curricular reform,
which must also involve other faculty members and stakeholders in active
collaboration to implement system-wide evaluation practices and ongoing curricular
reform.
Works published here are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.