Picking Up the PACE: Proficiency Assessment for Curricular Enhancement

Evaluating the reading and listening outcomes of beginning‐level Duolingo courses

“…After four semesters of instruction, students reached Intermediate Mid (IM) in reading, IL in listening, and IM in speaking. The discrepancy between Soneson and Tarone (2019), on one hand, and the findings of other studies in the Flagship Proficiency Initiative, on the other, might be due to differences in instruction/exposure. According to Strawbridge et al (2019), the PACE project was based on an enhanced curriculum that required five credit hours per semester, which was very likely more than language programs in other institutions that offer three or four credit hours per semester.…”

“…In sum, among the five studies reviewed in this section, Tschirner (2016), Hacking (2019), andWinke et al (2020) demonstrated that students at the end of the fourth semester of Spanish and French courses reached IL in reading proficiency and between NM and IL in listening proficiency, while Soneson and Tarone (2019) and Strawbridge et al (2019) reported results of one ACTFL sublevel higher. The higher proficiency reported in these two studies seemed to be based on one language program which offers an enhanced curriculum.…”

“…Notably, the findings from Rubio and Hacking (2019), which reported findings from all three institutions of the Flagship Proficiency Initiative, were very consistent with those of Tschirner ( 2016): Among other results, after four semesters of instruction, reading reached IL in Spanish and French, but listening remained at NH. Soneson and Tarone (2019) reported data from the Proficiency Assessment for Curricular Enhancement (PACE) project on ACTFL assessments of speaking, listening, and reading of seven languages at the University of Minnesota. Their findings reveal somewhat more rapid gains compared to Tschirner (2016) and Rubio and Hacking (2019).…”

“…At the end of the fourth semester, students in both languages reached IM in reading, IL in listening, and IM in speaking. However, as mentioned in relation to Soneson and Tarone (2019), the language programs under investigation offered five credit hours per semester for the first four semesters of language study. Finally, Winke et al (2020) provided a proficiency profile of the university undergraduate students in six languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish) based on ACTFL speaking, listening, and reading proficiency data collected in Spring, 2017 of the Language Flagship Proficiency Initiative.…”

Lasting effects of pre‐university language exposure on undergraduate proficiency

“…All liberal arts students in the college must complete the equivalent of a fourth-semester language course as a graduation requirement. Initial placement, or entry point, to the curriculum at the university is based on proficiency-oriented tests, not on seat time, nor on any other factor, such as heritage status or time spent in an immersion environment (Soneson & Tarone, 2019 to take the online "Entrance Proficiency Test," which consists of three parts: an online multiplechoice section for reading and one for listening, aimed at the equivalent of ACTFL Intermediate Mid-level proficiency. If students pass these sections, they complete a writing portion meant to elicit Intermediate Low-level writing.…”