THE PROFICIENCY APPROACH
A Brief Description by Prof. Vardit Ringvald

What is the Proficiency Approach?

Proficiency is an approach used in teaching a foreign language that aims to assist learners in developing their ability to perform in the learned language in all four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking).  This approach was developed in the United States during the early 1980s and is still in use today.  The events and developments that helped shape the background for the creation of this approach were several national initiatives that took place during the 1960s and ‘70s, such as: the President’s Commission on Foreign Languages and International Studies, the beginning of a number of Communicative Language Teaching Movements, and the work of various government agencies to improve the ways in which functional language abilities were taught and evaluated.

The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), with the help of practitioners and researchers in the field, developed the ACTFL Provisional Guidelines in 1982.  These guidelines serve as the directing principles of the Proficiency Approach.  The approach recognizes the fact that the learners’ ability to perform in the target language develops gradually.  Accordingly, it identifies four main phases which language learners go through during the acquiring process, before they achieve native speaker abilities: Novice, Intermediate, Advanced and Superior.  The first three phases are further divided into sub-levels.  Therefore the evaluation of the learners’ ability in the target language can be explicitly described.  The specification of the development process helps us identify strengths and weaknesses of the learners’ performance.  We can define specific levels such as Novice-Low, Novice–Mid, Novice-High, or Intermediate-Low, Intermediate-Mid, Intermediate-High and so on.

The evaluation of the learners uses four interrelated criteria.  Each of the four language skills is evaluated for each level and sub-level in terms of content/context, task, text type, and accuracy.  For example, learners who can function at the advanced level in terms of content/context can relate to topics that are connected to issues outside their immediate surroundings such as society and politics.  In terms of task, these learners can actively describe, narrate, and compare, as well as understand materials that include these language functions.  In terms of text type, the learners can deal with the language in a several paragraphs long text, as well as express a thought in writing and speaking that is several paragraphs long.  In terms of accuracy, in spite of some patterned mistakes in their writing and speaking performance, learners at this stage can be understood by native speakers who are not used to deal with language learners.  They are also able to understand most of the details described in authentic materials used in the country in which the target language is in use.

The 1982 ACTFL Guidelines were generic and suited mainly the most commonly taught languages such as French, Spanish, and German.  An ACTFL and federally sponsored initiative followed, which tried to create specific guidelines for additional languages.  In 1989 the Hebrew Proficiency Guidelines were created by a team of Hebrew language experts at the Hebrew Program at Brandeis University.  The new Guidelines paved the way for two more grants for articulating Hebrew proficiency goals for secondary and post-secondary learners

Why Proficiency?

Allows A Flexible Curriculum:

The goal of the Proficiency Approach is one: to promote the learners’ functional abilities according to a fixed set of criteria.  It does not dictate specifics of teaching material or a specific teaching method.  Therefore, it allows each teacher and institution to select the most suitable material or teaching method that will maximize their learners’ language acquisition process.  The approach also allows the teachers to use the curriculum as a vehicle to reinforce the values that the school chooses to emphasize.

Helps Articulate Learning Goals:

By describing the nature of each level of performance in each language skill the guidelines provide us with the tools to create a path for our learners to move from one stage to the next.  The criteria used in the guidelines help language educators create and articulate clearly specific performance goals for their learners of all language skills.

Supports Language Acquisition:

The Proficiency Approach is the most efficient framework that allows the acquisition of a learned language in an academic setting in which the contact hours are relatively limited.  By adopting the notion of performance as the core principle, the Proficiency Approach focuses on the learners’ abilities in the target language by concentrating simply on what the learners know about the language.  Consequentially the approach supports the teaching and the learning of the pragmatics of the language which, according to Van Patten^1_, help learners internalize the language.

Creates A Learners-Centered Environment:

Aiming to bring learners to a high level of performance in the target language demands an understanding of who they are as learners.  Language educators must know their learners’ variables and take them into consideration while creating the curriculum.  These variables include their motivation, appropriate language learning style and learning strategies, level of anxiety, predisposition toward the language, and level of aptitude to acquire it. 

Helps Assess Learners’ Performance:

Using the guidelines criteria makes it easier to assess learners’ language abilities in all four skills for the purpose of making decisions on placing learners into their appropriate learning groups as well as for making decisions relating to articulation of learning goals.

The Proficiency Approach as the Best Framework for Hebrew Teacher Training

Anecdotal information leads us to believe that most of the Hebrew teachers in North America are Israelis who are native speakers of Hebrew with some degree of teaching experience.  Most of these individuals lack an understanding of the how a language is acquired and the training as professional language-teachers.  The traditional approach for training in service Hebrew teachers consists of presenting them with a set of ready-made materials, prepared by expert teachers and ready to be used in the classroom.  When in service, teachers are trained to teach through the Proficiency Approach.  In order to execute the Proficiency goals they are first required to understand most of the aspects related to the language-teaching profession, such as second language acquisition theories, teaching methodologies, principles in identifying appropriate teaching materials for their learners and how to develop them, assessment methods as well as some principles that are related to formulating lesson-plans and incorporating the use of technology in the classroom.

Jewish education in North America is typified by its diversity.  It is blessed with different religious affiliations that reflect different educational goals.  Jewish educators serve populations with different needs and diverse worldviews.  Such an environment necessitates a Hebrew curriculum that is tailored to enable learners to achieve their particular educational goals and needs.  In such a framework the Hebrew language teachers must become language experts who can make the connections that relate to specific teaching and learning environments.

Training through the Proficiency Approach is their chance to become independent professionals who can serve as the Hebrew language experts in their school.  At the same time it provides the school the opportunity to choose a flexible schedule and curriculum that fits their ideological goals. 

"Jewish education in North America is typified by its diversity.  It is blessed with different religious affiliations that reflect different educational goals.  Jewish educators serve populations with different needs and diverse worldviews. ...In such a framework the Hebrew language teachers must become language experts who can make the connections that relate to specific teaching and learning environments.

Training through the Proficiency Approach is their chance to become independent professionals who can serve as the Hebrew language experts in their school."