User:AdubofourGh/Language proficiency

Language proficiency may be understood as the measure of an individual’s ability to meaningfully use spoken and written forms of language in different contexts. Thus, the level of accuracy with which the individual uses language determines their level of proficiency. Also, it is possible for an individual to exhibit proficiency in different languages as proficiency is needed for effective communication in each language context.

There is no singular definition of language proficiency: while certain groups limit its scope to speaking ability, others extend it to cover both productive and receptive language skills and their effective application in varying practical contexts. However, this diversity has implications for its application in other language domains such as literacy, testing, endangered languages, language impairment, etc. There is little consistency as to how different organizations classify it. Native-level fluency is estimated to require a lexicon between 20,000 and 40,000 words, but basic conversational fluency might require as few as 3,000 words.

There are levels of language proficiency that explain the areas of focus for individual who pursues proficiency in a new language, and there are theories that exist to explain the process of acquiring proficiency in a language. Further, factors such as globalization, development of metropolitan communities, migration among others require individuals to seek proficiency in languages other than their L1 or mother tongue. These explain the learning and use of second languages (L2) and foreign languages depending on the individual’s connection to any other language beside their mother tongue.

Benefits
Generally, language proficiency is needed to facilitate communication in given contexts; however, in specific contexts, the need for it may differ. For instance, a student may need academic language proficiency to thrive in academic reading tasks. The economic implications of language proficiency such as job acquisition and retention are reported too.

Proficiency, L1, Second and Foreign Language Learning
While proficiency in one’s first language(s) – also known as L1 - comes by acquisition, subsequent languages (second or foreign, also known as L2) are learned. Linguists have found that there is a relationship between the two, and L2 learning should be a build-up on the learner’s L1.

Levels/Domains of Language Proficiency
Proficiency levels may be measured by factors such as vocabulary, syntax, and semantic knowledge as well as other receptive and productive language abilities. All these levels facilitate the four (4) domains of proficiency – speaking, listening, reading, and writing. While listening and reading form receptive domains (i.e., allowing learners to appreciate oral and written messages from others), speaking and writing form productive domains (i.e., allowing learners share their meaning through language with others). Further, the domains may develop at different rates.

Domain interest may be determined by the need for which an individual approaches a language. For instance, the proficiency requirements placed on a student may not be the same as a foreigner migrating to another country for manual labor; while the student learner may be interested in domains such as reading and writing with varied interests in other domains, the employment-seeking migrant may be mainly interested in the speaking and listening domains with reduced emphasis on the other domains.

Proficiency and Discrimination
Since language proficiency is necessary for individuals to succeed in new environments, institutions such as foreign universities require proofs of proficiency from international students, particularly in English-speaking countries. However, over the years, this practice has been challenged as a ground for discrimination. Theories such as communicative competence, code-switching, code-meshing, and translanguaging are theories that have designed to challenge such practices in the classroom.

Communicative Competence
Presented by Dell Hymes, communicative competence is a recognition of the fact that language goes beyond symbols and rules to include non-verbal details. Thus, communicative competence recognizes the learner’s ability to determine when, how, and where to use to language. Built on the language domains, communicative competence comprises competencies in linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic details of a language.

Code-Switching, Code-Meshing, and Translanguaging
The phenomena of bilingualism and multilingualism suggest the possibility of individuals to have proficiency in different languages. This reality has prompted linguistic investigations on code-switching, code-meshing, and translanguaging. While code-switching occurs when an individual moves from one language or code to another in a communicative context, code-meshing blends more than one language, but these terms suggest a separatist view to multiple use of languages. Translanguaging, considered an improvement on code-meshing, provides an organic view to bilingualism and multilingualism. Initially used by Williams (1996), translanguaging is a term used to view the different languages in which an individual is proficient from a unitary sense rather than as discrete ones. The term has gained popularity in the US. This position has been challenged for the threats it poses to language instruction.

Developing language proficiency
Developing proficiency in any language begins with word learning. By the time they are 12 months old, children learn their first words and by the time they are 36 months old, they may know well over 900 words with their utterances intelligible to the people who interact with them the most.

Developing language proficiency improves an individual’s capacity to communicate. Over time through interaction and through exposure to new forms of language in use, an individual learns new words, sentence structures, and meanings, thereby increasing their command of using accurate forms of the target language.

Issues in defining language proficiency
Languages that are considered endangered are undergoing efforts to revitalize them. Some of these languages have few speakers, while some have none. The learners of these languages are engaged in using documented resources (i.e. word lists, hymnals, bibles) to relearn their languages. Language proficiency in these cases of endangerment is being determined by how much language is learned in these communities through these efforts; proficient speakers are being determined by these communities.

ACTFL
The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) distinguishes between proficiency and performance. In part, ACTFL's definition of proficiency is derived from mandates issued by the U.S. government, declaring that a limited English proficient student is one who comes from a non-English background and "who has sufficient difficulty speaking, reading, writing, or understanding the English language and whose difficulties may deny such an individual the opportunity to learn successfully in classrooms where the language of instruction is English or to participate fully in our society".

ACTFL views "performance" as being the combined effect of all three modes of communication: interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational.

Proficiency frameworks
Note that test scores may not correlate reliably, as different understandings of proficiency lead to different types of assessment:
 * FSI Test (Foreign Service Institute) Scores range from 0 to 5. (deprecated)
 * Interagency Language Roundtable Scores range from 0 to 5. (evolved from FSI)
 * Language Proficiency Index
 * ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines ACTFL recognises ten different levels of proficiency: "novice", "intermediate", "advanced", and "superior", of which the first three are each subdivided into "low", "mid", and "high".
 * Common European Framework of Reference for Languages CEFR recognises six levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1 and C2.

Proficiency tests

 * Online language proficiency test ( Level4, Level5, Level6 ) for pilots in english or german
 * Avant STAMP (STAndards-based Measurement of Proficiency)
 * Cambridge English Language Assessment tests
 * CaMLA (Cambridge Michigan Language Assessments)
 * CELI (Certificato di Conoscenza della Lingua Italiana)
 * CELPE-Bras (Certificate of Proficiency in Portuguese for Foreigners)
 * CILS (Certificazione di Italiano come Lingua Straniera)
 * DALF
 * Defense Language Proficiency Tests
 * DELF (Diplôme d'études en langue française)
 * DELE (Diplomas of Spanish as Foreign Language)
 * Examination for Japanese University Admission
 * General English Proficiency Test
 * GOETHE
 * HSK (汉语水平考试 Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì)
 * IELTS (International English Language Testing System)
 * iTEP (International Test of English Proficiency)
 * Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験 Nihongo Nōryoku Shiken)
 * Language Proficiency Assessment for Teachers
 * Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE-A)
 * Pipplet Fluency Exam CEFR oral and writing
 * PLIDA (Progetto Lingua Italiana Dante Alighieri)
 * The European Language Certificates (telc - language tests)
 * TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language)
 * TOEIC (Test of English for International Communication)
 * TOPIK (한국어능력시험 Test of Proficiency in Korean)
 * TEPS (Test of English Proficiency developed by Seoul National University)
 * Test of Russian as a Foreign Language
 * Test de français international
 * Test de connaissance du français
 * TOCFL (華語文能力測驗 Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language)
 * UBELT (University of Bath English Language Test)

Language-related organizations

 * Alliance Française
 * AIL (Accademia Italiana di Lingua)
 * American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
 * Association of Language Testers in Europe
 * Confucius Institute
 * Foreign service institute
 * Goethe-Institut
 * Instituto Cervantes
 * Japan Foundation
 * Società Dante Alighieri
 * UCLES
 * UNIcert
 * UONEDU

Notes and references
Category:Language acquisition Category:Language education Category:Pedagogy