Validity of Descriptors in ACTFL Language Proficiency Guidelines

What is it about?

The ACTFL Language Proficiency Guidelines (referred to as Guidelines) are created for 13 languages, but differences exist in the descriptors across languages and levels. Chinese, in particular, has unique characteristics in its phonology, characters, lexicon, and grammar. However, these peculiarities are often overlooked. Through comparison, descriptors related to time, aspect, cognate, stroke, and dialect that do not align with the Standards are identified. The identification of the five descriptors in the study reflects the unique characteristics of the Chinese language. The discrepancies in Time and Aspect reveal the absence of morphological changes in Chinese. The mismatch of Cognate highlights the predominance of native words in Chinese vocabulary. The abundance of Dialect underscores the complexity of Chinese dialects. The inconsistency in Stroke demonstrates the intricate relationship between strokes and character writing. Additionally, Chinese exhibits other unique features such as flexible structural units, freer conversion of word classes, and pragmatic dominance. These characteristics impact teaching objectives and validity of language assessment. Based on the results obtained, the authors suggest that some revisions can be made to Guidelines. (1) Some remarks can be added to the English version of Guidelines to indicate that some descriptors are not applicable to Chinese. (2) Some corresponding adjustments or modifications can be made to the Chinese version of Guidelines based on the features of Chinese. (3) By referencing Standards, some complementary descriptions can be added to the Chinese version to highlight the features of Chinese. (4) In General Preface to the Guidelines, explicit remarks can be given about the peculiar features of Chinese, and users are advised to use the Chinese version of Guidelines.

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Why is it important?

ACTFL Language Proficiency Guidelines are supposed to be applicable to all 13 languages. However, in actual practice, difficulties and discrepancies occur when it comes to Chinese language. Understanding why it is so and how to address these problems can be informative and instructive to Chinese language teachers in their teaching and shed an interesting light on the issue of applicability of ACTFL Guidelines.

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