Facts & Myths about Achievement of Advanced Professional Level L2 Proficiency (ILR 4)

1. Facts & Myths about Achievement of Advanced Professional Level L2 Proficiency(ILR 4) a presentation for BILC, Prague, May 2012Dr. Betty Lou Leaver Associate ProvostDirectorate of Continuing EducationDLIFLC, USA

2. Organizational Information DLIFLC has four directorates, administered by the Provost: • Directorate of Undergraduate Education • Directorate of Continuing Education • Directorate of Language Science & Technology • Directorate of Evaluation & Standards Note: Provost reports to assistant commandant & commandant, who oversee military structure.

3. Organizational Information, cont’d The Directorate of Continuing Education has five schools, 37 sites: • Distance Learning (sustainment & enhancement) • Field Support (non-linguists) • Extension Programs (lifelong learning for linguists) • Resident Education (enhancement) • Educational Support Services • DAC (Diagnostic Assessment Center/DA specialist trainers) • ASC (Academic Support Center) • Command Language Program (360+)

4. Sources of Informationon Students Achieving ILR 4 This presentation is based on: • Experience with and feedback from upper level at • Foreign Service Institute (US Department of State) • NASA • Defense Language Institute • University of Jordan (UJ) • Formal research funded by • National Foreign Language Center • Conference on College Composition and Communication (National Council of Teachers of English)

5. Defining Advanced Professional Level (ILR 4) • Usually equivalent to WEHANS; would not be mistaken for cultural native [ILR 3 over-self-assess; ILR 4 self-aware] • Wide-ranging control of structure; nonnative slip may occur • Language rarely hinders in any task; can set interpersonal official, semi-official and non-professional tone [tailoring] • Endurance & sophisticated verbal strategies: lectures, conferences, debates • Native social & circumstantial knowledge; not under all conditions • Shifts of subject matter & tone • Understands standard and major dialects [& street talk]

6. About the Students

7. Quiz: Which of the following characteristics have been associated with near-native L2 proficiency? • Desire to integrate into the culture • Motivated by compliments • Tenacity • High grades • Quick learner • Good ear • Desire to do a good job • Multilingual neighborhood in youth • Multilingual home • Time abroad • Young age at onset • Global learning style • Female • Marriage to a native speaker

8. Answers to Quiz in Bold • Desire to integrate into the culture • Motivated by compliments • Tenacity • High grades • Quick learner • Good ear • Desire to do a good job • Multilingual neighborhood in youth • Multilingual home • Time abroad • Young age at onset • Global learning style • Female • Marriage to a native speaker

9. Student Stories • Student A (ectenic learner) • Spanish • US government classes: FAO • Duty in Colombia • Community work • Voracious reader • Motivation: Instrumental (lawyer) • Student B (ectenic learner) • French • University classes • Study for degree in France • Voracious reader • Motivation: Vicarious (married to a French person)

10. More Student Stories • Student C (synoptic learner) • Russian • University classes • No experience abroad (two weeks after Level 4) • Community work • Job use (broadcaster) • Motivation: Intrinsic • Student D (synoptic learner) • German • University classes • Job abroad (publishing/editing English) • Motivation: Vicarious (married a German), intrinsic

11. Even More Student Stories • Student E (synoptic learner) • Russian • After school tutor: Literature • University classes: C average • US government classes • Job use • Degree work in country • Voracious reader & writer • Discouraged by teachers • Motivation: tenacity • Demotivator: linguistic & pronunciation error • Student F (synoptic learner) • French • Childhood community L2 • High school: creative writing • University classes – A/A+ • Job use • No time ever spent abroad • Voracious reader & writer • Encouraged by teachers • Motivation: intrinsic • Demotivator: criticism for regional accent

12. About the Upper Level DLI Programs

13. Success/Achievement • Courses at DLI: • Nine languages, 1-10 students per group • Refresher, intermediate, advanced, DTRA, extension • Course completion at graduation standard: • 95% enrolling with prerequisites (ability not considered) • 85% of all students • 54% exceed graduation standards • Negligible attrition (only those pulled by DTRA)

14. Results

15. Syllabi • Highly individualized/diagnostically oriented • Content-based • Language & culture focus • Task-based authenticity, research, & realism • Exclusively authentic; limited/no textbooks • Formal and informal immersion

16. Course Content • Subject matter core (language through content) • Political, social, and historical events • Immersion programs • University classes (integrated or duplicated) • Recyling vocab & grammar through all skills • Related excursions & exercises (e.g., surveys) • Integrated skills • Focus on process and product • Projects & portfolios • Presentations

17. Language & Culture Focus • “Grammar in the wild” • Grammar manipulation through genre shift • Language exercises • Packaging & re-packaging • Simplification of thought • Embellishment of language • Sociolinguistics & pragmatics [tailoring] • Reading between the lines & beyond the text

18. Task-Based Realism • Briefings to visitors • Teaching lower levels • Analyses & project reports • Student surveys (immersion programs) • True real-life tasks • DTRA translations • Assistance to ROK

19. Lower Level Taskvs. Upper Level Task • Weather report • Lower: Decide what to wear/pack • Upper: Parody the speaker; produce a local report • Biographical interviews • Lower: Pairs interview each other & report out • Upper: Students analyze professional interview, then interview each other & report out, using culturally appropriate text structure • Grammar exercise: relative clauses • Lower: identify the clauses & give alternative • Upper: rewrite in a different genre

20. Lower Levels vs. Upper Levels • Focus on form(s) vs. focus on text • Using context vs. refined knowledge • Intensive reading vs. extensive reading • Teacher direction vs. self-direction • Rote memory vs. associative memory • Immersions in class & in country • Requests for repetition vs. elicitation • Defossilization (upper): structure & lexicon (automatic & correct); strategies; autonomy; pragmatics & sociolinguistics; level

21. Some References for Level 4(Few Publications to Date) • CDLC: • Journal for Distinguished Language Proficiency (6 volumes) • Teaching and Learning to Near-Native Levels of Second-Language Proficiency (6 volumes of conference proceedings, 2003-2008) • What Works: Helping Students Reach Native-Like Second-Language Competence (MSI Press, 2006) • Leaver: • Achieving Native-Like Second Language Proficiency (MSI Press, 2003) • Individualized Study Plans for Very Advanced L2 Learners (MSI Press, 2003) • Leaver, Ehrman, & Shekhtman. Achieving Success in Second Language Acquisition (Cambridge University Press, 2005, chapter 10) • Leaver & Shekhtman, eds. Developing Professional Level Foreign Language Proficiency (Cambridge University Press, 2003) • Shekhtman. Working with Advanced Students (MSI Press, 2003)

22. Some More References(For Lower Levels: 2+ and 3) • Byrnes. Advanced Language Learning: The Contribution of Halliday and Vygotsky (Continuum, 2008) • Byrnes, Heather, & Sprang, eds. Educating for Advanced Foreign Language Capacities: Constructs, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment (Georgetown University Press, 2006) • Byrnes, Maxim, & Magnan. Advanced Foreign Language Learning, 2003 AAUSC Volume, Issues in Language Program Direction (Heinle, 2003) • Ortega & Byrnes. The Longitudinal Study of Advanced L2 Capacities (Routledge, 2008) • Watch for Brown & Bown, forthcoming, possibly Georgetown University Press, possible title: To 3 and Beyond

23. Centers for Higher Level Proficiency Studies • Center for the Advancement of Distinguished Language Proficiency, San Diego State University (ILR 4) • Center for Advanced Language Proficiency, Penn State University (ILR 2-3) Note: These are foreign language centers and generally do not address English.

24. Questions?