Description

• Institute Type: 3-day online—synchronous
• Target Audience: Pre- or in-service teachers as well as program administrators of all languages who work in a Dual Language Immersion (DLI) context, both at the elementary and secondary levels.

This popular summer institute, designed especially for K-12 Dual Language Immersion (DLI) practitioners, will introduce participants to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, which have served as a framework for language assessment and instruction across levels since their initial publication in 1982. Participants will examine how the proficiency levels and sublevels have been defined and, also, how they have evolved over time from focusing on oral language assessment to include all modes of communication. The presenters will also share research on assessing performance toward proficiency of DLI students.

With an understanding of the proficiency framework, participants will apply the guidelines as an organizing principle to DLI classrooms, syllabi, and lesson planning, with the goal of developing lessons, learning tasks, and classroom-based, formative assessments that are consistent with a proficiency-based approach in a dual language immersion context.

Sponsorship Statement: This summer institute is generously co-sponsored and co-staffed by the Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC) at the University of Utah.

Instructors

Kerrie Neu is a district coordinator for the Dual Language Immersion programs at Granite School District in Utah. She is also an independent educational consultant, with a background in elementary education, early childhood, mathematics, and language acquisition, who creates curriculum and provides professional development for teachers.

Johanna Watzinger-Tharp is professor emerita (University of Utah). Until 2023, she taught in the Department of Linguistics and has served as L2TReC research coordinator. Currently, she serves as co-chair of the 9th International Conference on Immersion and Dual Language Education. Together with Fernando Rubio, she has conducted large-scale research on proficiency attainment of elementary and secondary DLI students.

See the full course description here.
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