Oral Proficiency Preparation

As a student in the Global Languages Department at Shippensburg University, you can prepare to reach an Advanced level of oral and written proficiency according to the ACTFL standards by:

• Consulting with your advisor to know what your current proficiency level is.
• Complying with course requirements such as readings, assignments, and projects.
• Designing a learning plan in case your proficiency level is way below the target.
• Participating as much as you can in class (responding in the target language, asking for clarification in the target language) and outside of class (emailing your teacher and classmates in the target language) and consciously moving out of your comfort zone.
• Participating in your language club activities.
• Increasing the amount of vocabulary and verbs you know by keeping a vocabulary notebook (reviewing it and adding to it often).
• Seeking opportunities to hear and speak more your chosen foreign language.
• Putting yourself in contact with the target culture (Visiting websites or watching movies, even with English subtitles (see the Lehman library DVD collection), reading novels or comic books (see the Lehman library collection).
• Including a study abroad experience within your academic plans.
• Asking for suggestions for readings/films/websites for your leisure time.
• Practicing talking about current events in the target language with classmates, friends, etc.
• Talking, talking, talking in the target language as much as possible.
• Preparing yourself for an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI).
• Taking an in house OPI with your academic advisor.
• On Skype, finding a native-speaker interested in trading conversation in the target language for conversation in English.