IPA Rubrics are changing.

News from ACTFL
Paul Sandrock:
The IPA Rubrics are changing in a few different ways - and will be finalized when a new publication comes out later this year: Implementing Integrated Performance Assessment, by Bonnie Adair Hauck, Eileen Glisan, and Francis Troyan.

ACTFL SUMMER OPI ASSESSMENT WORKSHOP

Register now: ACTFL summer OPI assessment workshop at Middlebury College
ACTFL proudly announces the summer OPI assessment workshop that will be held at Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, from July 18-21, 2013 for the following languages: Spanish, Hebrew, German, French and Portuguese. The workshop is a four-day course in professional development to introduce language educators to the Oral Proficiency Interview, ACTFL rating scale and techniques for conducting and evaluating oral proficiency interviews. More information.

There is a huge demand for nannies in Munich

Published: 9 Apr 13 06:39   Print version

 

Being a nanny or au pair can be a great way to experience German culture, but there can be pitfalls. Nicolette Kalbfell explores the ins and outs of working in Munich.

If you happen to be a young, educated English-speaking woman with a knack for keeping children entertained, you can easily find work in Munich these days.

“It was overwhelming,” said Carrie Lawler, a 27-year old full-time nanny living in the Bavarian capital. “After I posted my availability online, the number of interested families willing to hire me was in the dozens.” ....

 Online: http://www.thelocal.de/lifestyle/20130409-49009.html

FYI See what languages are spoken in the U.S.

MLA Language Map and Language Map with Enrollment Data

http://arcgis.mla.org/mla/default.aspx

The languages of the U.S. — in one map

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/03/07/the-languages-of-the-u-s-in-one-map/?goback=%2Egde_1799190_member_221056417

FYI: Testing and Assessment Webinars

Testing and Assessment Webinars

Language acquisition research increasingly points to targeted feedback as a key component for increasing learner proficiency. To receive targeted feedback,however, more refined tools for testing and assessment of learner language are needed. To this end, LARC and CALPER at Penn State (a sister national Language Resource Center) are partnering to offer a series of webinars bringing well-known researchers and practitioners together in online classrooms, with supporting podcasts for each session and webinar archives available for post-session review.

Upcoming Webinars

Date	Time	Title	Presenter	Description	Links
Thursday February 21, 2013	1:30-2:40 pm (Pacific) Check your time zone	Developing Rubrics for Language Assessment	Dr. James Dean Brown University of Hawai‘i at Manoa	Rubrics	Description & Register
Wednesday April 10, 2013	12:30-1:40 pm (Pacific) Check your time zone	Assessing Language Using Computer Technology	Dr. Volker Hegelheimer Iowa State University	Computer Assisted Testing and Assessment	Description & Register

Speaking More Than One Language Could Prevent Alzheimer's

by Nancy Shute

January 10, 2013 4:15 PM

Health News From NPR

...Earlier research has found that people bilingual since childhood are better at the high-order thinking called executive function as they age...Neuroscientists think that having more reserve brain power helps compensate for age-related declines in thinking and memory, and may help protect against the losses caused by Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. The study was published in the Journal of Neuroscience...

See: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/01/10/169066535/speaking-more-than-one-language-could-prevent-alzheimers?ft=1&f=1028

Free Online ESL Writing Workshop

The English as a Second Language Writing Online Workshop is now available, completely free of charge, at http://www.esl-wow.org/.

ESL-WOW is an online multimedia program designed to guide non-native speakers of English through each stage of the pre-writing, while-writing, and post-writing processes: 1) Getting Ready to Write, 2) Developing Your Ideas, 3) Revising Your Work, and 4) Editing and Polishing.

This online resource is designed for community college students and adult learners. ESL-WOW was developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), U.S. Department of Education.