Brightman: MLO1
MLO 1: Language Proficiency
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) under the Advanced-Low proficiency level speakers are to be able to speak about topics in casual and formal conversations regarding topics of school, home, and other activities. I reflect on my year abroad in Granada Spain as having provided me with the opportunities to expand my speaking, listening, reading, and writing ability in the acquired second language of Spanish.
Sitting in a room full of students at the dormitories in Madrid, I waited to meet Maria Maldagnado our program director from Granada. As the groups chatter quieted down Maria started speaking of our year to come, expectations, and background information about herself and we were the reason she loved her job—all of this spoken in Spanish! I trembled thinking of having to present my name, major, and school name in front of all of these people I didn’t know. Al final lo logré! In contrast, on our very last day together I was able to talk to every student and our leaders in Spanish about whatever topic was up in the air with confidence.
In the first classroom upstairs in the CLM my mind spun trying to write down all of the things I heard my Spanish History teacher saying. My listening ability grew in a quick three months with this teacher because I could not only write down word for word his class but also interpret information and write notes that would later help me study and learn about the class content as well as the new language.
My favorite challenge today is finding new books in Spanish rather than English. A friend first recommended me The Little Prince in Spanish, after struggling to understand even the most basic sentence structures I am currently reading Una Noche de Amor a non-fiction narrative of Advanced high level of Spanish literature. Reading is the glue to keep my vocabulary knowledge growing and sentence structure in tact. Furthermore, writing in a foreign second language is something I do on a regular basis inside and outside of class. The form of words and how the flow together is important to me in writing letters to friends, notes, and of course my capstone project.
I am confident that the level of Spanish I have learned in all four levels is what I expected of myself. I am still growing and being challenged by my peers and friends I made abroad on all four levels and there is always more to learn. By next year I want to be at the ACTFL’s superior level in language proficiency so I have an upper hand in the workforce and job market.
According to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) under the Advanced-Low proficiency level speakers are to be able to speak about topics in casual and formal conversations regarding topics of school, home, and other activities. I reflect on my year abroad in Granada Spain as having provided me with the opportunities to expand my speaking, listening, reading, and writing ability in the acquired second language of Spanish.
Sitting in a room full of students at the dormitories in Madrid, I waited to meet Maria Maldagnado our program director from Granada. As the groups chatter quieted down Maria started speaking of our year to come, expectations, and background information about herself and we were the reason she loved her job—all of this spoken in Spanish! I trembled thinking of having to present my name, major, and school name in front of all of these people I didn’t know. Al final lo logré! In contrast, on our very last day together I was able to talk to every student and our leaders in Spanish about whatever topic was up in the air with confidence.
In the first classroom upstairs in the CLM my mind spun trying to write down all of the things I heard my Spanish History teacher saying. My listening ability grew in a quick three months with this teacher because I could not only write down word for word his class but also interpret information and write notes that would later help me study and learn about the class content as well as the new language.
My favorite challenge today is finding new books in Spanish rather than English. A friend first recommended me The Little Prince in Spanish, after struggling to understand even the most basic sentence structures I am currently reading Una Noche de Amor a non-fiction narrative of Advanced high level of Spanish literature. Reading is the glue to keep my vocabulary knowledge growing and sentence structure in tact. Furthermore, writing in a foreign second language is something I do on a regular basis inside and outside of class. The form of words and how the flow together is important to me in writing letters to friends, notes, and of course my capstone project.
I am confident that the level of Spanish I have learned in all four levels is what I expected of myself. I am still growing and being challenged by my peers and friends I made abroad on all four levels and there is always more to learn. By next year I want to be at the ACTFL’s superior level in language proficiency so I have an upper hand in the workforce and job market.
