Oral Proficiency through Film and ACTFL OPI-Guided Tasks in a Conversation Course
Subject Area
Foreign Language Pedagogy
Abstract
How can educators help learners develop their L2 oral proficiency in a conversation class? The current presentation offers pedagogical examples to assist these language learners in developing their linguistic proficiency using the ACTFL oral proficiency framework. The conversation class incorporated several films in the target language, thereby allowing for incremental focus on proficiency levels. Within this common context, the activities varied in a progressive fashion from eliciting novice-level responses (such as physical descriptions using stock phrases) to higher-level tasks (such as eliciting narrations in different timeframes and reactions to hypothetical situations), using characters, episodes, and situations from the movies. Sample teaching materials will be provided and well as the opportunity to engage in these proficiency-oriented tasks. Directions for future research will also be discussed.
Brief Bio Note
Alicia Almada, a native of Argentina, is a lecturer of Spanish at Auburn University, AL. She holds Master’s degrees in Hispanic Studies and Sociology and has been teaching at Auburn for more than six years.
Almitra Medina is an assistant professor of Spanish at Auburn University, AL, whose area of concentration is applied linguistics. With a specialization in second language acquisition, Dr. Medina’s research interests focus on four main strands of linguistic inquiry, namely cognition, second language reading and listening comprehension, computer assisted language learning, and phonetics/phonology.
Keywords
Oral proficiency, ACTFL proficiency guidelines, Film, Conversation, Spanish
Location
Room 217
Presentation Year
2015
Start Date
3-26-2015 3:00 PM
End Date
3-26-2015 4:15 PM
Embargo
5-23-2017
Recommended Citation
Almada, Alicia and Medina, Albitra, "Oral Proficiency through Film and ACTFL OPI-Guided Tasks in a Conversation Course" (2015). South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL). 41.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/seccll/2015/2015/41
Oral Proficiency through Film and ACTFL OPI-Guided Tasks in a Conversation Course
Room 217
How can educators help learners develop their L2 oral proficiency in a conversation class? The current presentation offers pedagogical examples to assist these language learners in developing their linguistic proficiency using the ACTFL oral proficiency framework. The conversation class incorporated several films in the target language, thereby allowing for incremental focus on proficiency levels. Within this common context, the activities varied in a progressive fashion from eliciting novice-level responses (such as physical descriptions using stock phrases) to higher-level tasks (such as eliciting narrations in different timeframes and reactions to hypothetical situations), using characters, episodes, and situations from the movies. Sample teaching materials will be provided and well as the opportunity to engage in these proficiency-oriented tasks. Directions for future research will also be discussed.
