|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rice Thresher
Phone:
|
by Elizabeth Jardina thresher editorial staff This year's entering class of students is the first at Rice subject to a foreign language competency requirement. However, actually proving competency is far harder than previously expected. During the 1998-'99 academic year, the faculty considered many curriculum changes. The only ones passed were the removal of the restricted distribution system and the addition of a language requirement. The requirement states that there are six ways to achieve competency, though the ones most at issue at the moment are receiving Advanced Placement (or International Baccalaureate) credit, completing a fourth-semester language class or taking a nationally accredited test. Interim Dean of Humanities Gale Stokes said the most problematic issue is the test. The requirements state that a student is considered competent in a language "by earning on a nationally accredited standardized placement test a score equivalent to intermediate-mid or higher, as defined by the American Council on Teaching Foreign Language." "There isn't any such thing," Stokes said of the test. "This is one of the little problems." Stokes said that the Language Steering Committee was charged with figuring out how to implement the requirement and advising the dean of humanities. The committee is composed of the language department heads, linguistics faculty, Asian studies faculty and the heads of the Language Resource Center and the Study for the Center of Cultures. Stokes said, "So, what the Language Steering Committee did last year was to look at various tests that were given around the country, and they decided - all of these people who are the most knowledgeable people on the subject - decided we should adopt, or attempt to use, the test that Stanford used. So, we basically purchased from Stanford that test." However, after the test was purchased, the committee discovered that it wasn't adequate. ACTFL is a national organization composed of teachers of foreign languages at all grade levels. That organization has a standard for language testing that measures nine levels - novice, intermediate and expert categories, each of which can be low, mid or high. "Well, it turns out the Stanford test was actually not written to measure ACTFL intermediate-mid," Stokes said. To measure ACTFL intermediate-mid, a student must be tested in reading, writing, listening and speaking. The first three can be tested in an Web-based test. The last requires an oral proficiency interview. OPIs are to be given by specially certified faculty in each language. Stokes said faculty in Spanish, French, German and Chinese wrote examinations to determine whether the taker has achieved intermediate-mid level according to ACTFL standards. "Then, in order to satisfy the 'nationally standardized accredited' portion, we have sent those exams off to specialists - the best specialists in the country, really, on ACTFL testing - and they have responded." The German and Chinese tests were approved by ACTFL specialists and are now considered nationally accredited. The Spanish and French tests were not approved. "So, I've been talking to French and Spanish folks and they're going to get back to work on this, and we're hoping that this semester we'll do that," Stokes said. Stokes said that one of the problems with acquiring the ACTFL certification was that the Language Steering Committee did not decide that Rice should write its own tests until late last spring. "They didn't come to this until fairly far along the line," he said. Stokes said the single most important problem currently faced by the School of Humanities is getting a certified Spanish test. "The most important thing to do - I would say the single most important thing to do - is to get our exit exam for Spanish certified," he said. Professor R. Lane Kauffmann, the chair of the Department of Hispanic and Classical Studies, said that an estimated 58 percent of last year's freshmen said they would have taken Spanish classes had they had a language requirement. The question was asked on a voluntary survey available to last year's freshman class during Orientation Week. Last year's freshmen also could take the Stanford test online. The test results and the survey were used to estimate data about the language skills of their class so that departments could have some idea about what to expect with this year's freshman class. As for students who took the online Spanish placement test this year, Stokes said acing the test and passing the OPI will not be enough to get them out of the language requirement officially. The tests for Spanish and French "will not, so far, qualify as so-called 'exit' tests," he said. He said that while getting the Spanish test certified is the major concern, the problems with testing don't end there. "There's the question about what to do about all the other languages that we do teach - Portuguese, Italian, Korean, Japanese." There isn't a test available in Portuguese yet, although there is a plan to have one in the near future. Tests have been created for Italian, Korean and Japanese, but they have not been certified by ACTFL. But, few students needed to take these exams. Three freshmen took the Italian placement test on Tuesday during the testing period for languages not offered online, four took the Korean test, and 12 took the Japanese test. "This is pretty much a nightmare," Stokes said. "But I think that the bottom line principle is that we don't want to harm students, and in the final analysis, I want to do what I can to make sure that doesn't happen, while at the same time, honestly fulfilling the fact that these mandates say that people should show competency in language before they graduate." Despite the difficulties faced by the language departments and the School of Humanities, many students don't seem bothered. "Confused? No, it was pretty well explained when they sent the information to our houses before we came," Hanszen College freshman Andy Perez said. "I'm either thinking of doing a semester abroad, which I was thinking of doing anyway, the first semester of my sophomore year or if I don't get the opportunity to do that, I'll just take the four courses."
- back - |
|
|
Search the Thresher pages:
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu |
