Help Discover Languages Month go Viral!

Help ACTFL make Discover Languages the "hot" topic for February, not just the language community but to everyone.  Retweet  to ACTFL's daily message to your followers, post to your online profile or e-mail to your address book.  You can follow the messages on ACTFL's Twitter account, Facebook group or on DiscoverLanguages.org.  Get your friends, family and students involved! Tell us how you are using the daily postings in ACTFL's new Online Community and give us suggestions for more!

Registration Open for July OPI Assessment Workshop
Registration is now open for the OPI Assessment Workshop on July 8-11, 2010 in Middlebury, CT.  This workshop will feature language sections in Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. The ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Assessment Workshop is a four-day professional development workshop designed to introduce language educators to the Oral Proficiency Interview, the ACTFL rating scale, and the techniques for conducting and rating oral proficiency interviews. In daily plenary presentations, participants address general concepts and strategies for oral proficiency testing. This information is then reinforced and practiced in language-specific break-out sessions by observing model interviews, participating in hands-on rating activities, and conducting and rating live practice interviews. These practice interviews and ratings are discussed and critiqued in the language-specific groups. Following the workshop, eligible participants may pursue ACTFL OPI Rater and OPI Tester Certification.

Participation is limited to ten (10) people per language section and often sells out in advance, don't delay register today.  

Successful candidates will work for ACTFL as freelance language testers conducting telephone-based oral proficiency assessments from their home on an as needed basis. For more information or to apply, visit the full listing in the ACTFL Career Center!

Maryland Adds Foreign Language Requirement to State Code
There is cause to celebrate in the state of Maryland.  ACTFL was recently notified that the Maryland Department of Education recently added a chapter to their state code requiring that “Each local school system shall provide a comprehensive, sequential world language instructional program beginning no later than the middle learning years.”  The code goes on to say that the language programs will be based on the Maryland World Language Content Standards which are based on the 5 Cs of the national standards.  The Maryland Foreign Language Association (MFLA) was instrumental in supporting the recommendation and called on both ACTFL and the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL) to support the recommendation as well.  Both Rebecca Kline, Executive Director of NECTFL, and Bret Lovejoy, Executive Director of ACTFL wrote letters of support.

Click here to read ACTFL's letter.

ACTFL is always available to support you in your local advocacy efforts, visit the advocacy section of ACTFL.org for more information.