Literacy & Languages Coming soon
World Languages Path
A diagnostic that will find where each student’s proficiency in a world language breaks down, and build the path forward.
The problem
Where world language proficiency stalls
Learning a world language means building communication skills that depend on each other: vocabulary, grammar, listening and speaking. Grades rarely show which one is holding a student back.
- A course grade doesn’t show which communication skill is missing.
- Students placed by seat time can end up in the wrong level.
- Teachers have little time to diagnose each student individually.
Inside the Path
What the World Languages Path covers
The World Languages Path will be built on the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards, which organize language learning around communication, cultures, connections, comparisons and communities, with communication described in three modes: interpretive, interpersonal and presentational.
Where students get stuck
Learners often rely on word-for-word translation, carry grammar patterns over from their first language, or understand far more than they can say. Progress in one mode doesn’t always mean progress in another, which is why placement by seat time can miss what a student can actually do.
What it does for you
What this Path will do
For teachers
Will trace each student’s responses to the skills they’re still building, so practice will target the right thing.
More for teachersFor school leaders
Will give each student practice that starts from what they can already do.
More for school leadersFor districts
Will bring one diagnostic method to world language programs, built on ACTFL.
More for districtsHow it works
How the Path will work
Diagnose
An adaptive diagnostic will move across the modes of communication, choosing each task from the answers so far.
Trace
Results will be traced through a map of how language skills build on each other.
Rebuild
Students will get a path of practice that starts at their gap.
Standards
Will be built on published standards
ACTFL World-Readiness Standards
The World Languages Path will be built on the ACTFL World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages.
The science
The method behind every Path
Item Response Theory
Each student’s ability is estimated from their answers, and each next question is the one expected to tell the most.
Prerequisite maps
Standards are mapped as a graph of which skills build on which, so a gap can be traced to where it starts.
Misconception tagging
Wrong answer choices are written to reveal specific misconceptions, from a controlled catalog.
Research
The research behind this Path
These published studies are about how students learn, not about SubjectPath itself.
Cummins distinguished everyday conversational skills, such as fluency and accent, from the academic language proficiency that school learning draws on, and proposed that this academic proficiency is shared across a learner’s first and second languages.
Cummins (1979)The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines describe what individuals can do with a language at each level of proficiency in speaking, writing, listening and reading, in real-world situations.
ACTFL (2024)
Help shape the World Languages Path
Tell us about your courses and students, and which of your classes the World Languages Path would serve. We’d like to hear what it should do first.
Tell us you’re interestedFrequently asked questions
- Which languages will it cover?
- Tell us which languages your district teaches; that will shape where World Languages starts.
- When will it be available?
- We don’t publish dates. Tell us about your timeline and we’ll talk it through.
- Can we help shape it?
- Yes. Tell us about your courses and students. We’d like to hear what you need from it.
Talk to us about the World Languages Path
See Algebra Readiness in a demo today, and tell us what you need from this Path.