OATdb Archive - Sam Houston State University

OATdb Archive

2012 - 2013

Spanish BA

Goal

Skills Proficiency

Graduating majors will demonstrate skills proficiency.

Objective

Oral Proficiency

Graduating majors will demonstrate oral proficiency.

Indicator

Capstone Presentation

Individual graduating majors will each give a ten-minute capstone presentation, followed by five minutes of questions from faculty, all in the target language, during the final semester before graduation.

Criterion

Graduating Majors' Participation

Three faculty members will evaluate each capstone presentation, using the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Language (ACTFL) levels, each student averaging intermediate mid or higher.

Finding

Capstones

At least three faculty members participated in evaluating each graduating major's oral proficiency using the ACTFL rubrics in a capstone presentation during the final semester.

Indicator

ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI)

All graduating majors will complete an ACTFL OPI during the final semester of classes.

Criterion

OPI Evaluation

A Department of Foreign Language's officially trained ACTFL OPI Evaluator will interview each graduating major during the final semester. Students will be scored at intermediate, mid, or higher.

Finding

OPI

Each graduating major was evaluated in an OPI using ACTFL standards by an FOL faculty member trained by ACTFL.

Action

Oral Proficiency

Based on the capstone and OPI results of graduating majors, the common required student proficiency tasks for the first four levels of language acquisition are being adapted to maximize performance.

Objective

Writing Proficiency

Graduating majors will demonstrate writing proficiency.

Indicator

Portfolio

During the final semester, all graduating majors will submit a portfolio of class assignments from SHSU classes to demonstrate writing proficiency.

Criterion

Portfolio Contents

Portfolio will contain thee assignments: one paper, one grammar exam, and one of student's choice. The portfolio is scored by a faculty member teaching the course from which the assignment comes. Portfolios will be scored as meeting expectations or exceeds expectations.

Finding

Graduating Majors' Portfolios

All graduating majors have submitted portfolios, which contain 3 assignments, most with one paper, one grammar exam, and one of student's choice.

The portfolios have yet to be scored by a faculty member teaching the course from which the assignment comes, as neither students nor faculty members have retained graded assignments. Portfolios have not yet been scored as meeting expectations or exceeds expectations as the rubric for expectations has yet to be finalized.

Action

Graduating Majors' Portfolios

While the portfolios are being collected electronically to aid in evaluation, they do not necessarily contain the stipulated assignments, nor are those assignments graded.

No progress has been made on evaluation of the portfolios due to lack of like materials contained within in order to apply the ACTFL rubric(s) for writing proficiency.

Update to previous cycle's plan for continuous improvement We have now facilitated the training of two faculty members to be OPI evaluators. The electronic portfolio submission is still a work in progress, as the majority of our students do not seem to retain their associated work, especially in electronic form; nor do the majority of professors who teach such courses grade "on-line," which would facilitate accessing the work and submitting it electronically.

All graduating Spanish majors are doing a capstone presentation, an OPI evaluation, the portfolio and questionnaire every semester and we always have at least three faculty participants in the capstone, all using the ACTFL standards. We continue to have one date for capstones, although the number of graduating majors has become somewhat unwieldly for same. We continue to have the problem of last minute declarations and students who swear they have never heard of the requirements (plus what appears to be some lack of knowledge/resistance on the part of advisors outside FOL.

Plan for continuous improvement We will need to standarize electronic collection of common portfolio materials over the potential four years of any given student's courses with FOL at SHSU, perhaps by faculty submission of final exams in the grammar and composition course and final research papers in other advanced classes.