This weekend in Large City I saw a friend who is the language coordinator at R1. For exit interviews from the BA, departmental goal is to have 40% of graduates at ACTFL Advanced Mid, and the other 60% at Advanced High.
I am looking right now at examples of Distinguished, Superior, Advanced and Intermediate readings. It is revealing. There isn’t an undergraduate curriculum that doesn’t include Superior readings, and many include Distinguished ones.
Oregon high schools aim for Intermediate-mid or Intermediate-high proficiency after 4 years of study (720 hours). 14% of their students actually attain this. Our major has 1,660 hours in it, starting with 102. In that time we should be able to get people to Advanced.
People not at Superior are not in fact ready for graduate school, and you have to be at a Distinguished level to really function professionally, as a Hispanist. The students we have had struggle in graduate programs have been Advanced.
This is why Advanced should be a minimum goal for graduation, and we should insist on Superior-level readings. In some of my courses, though, I may need to recognize that readings are unrealistically difficult.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 