actfl world readiness standards
ACTFL advocates that language and communication are at the heart of the human experience. The United States must educate students who are linguistically and culturally equipped to communicate successfully in a pluralistic American society and abroad. This imperative envisions a future in which all students will develop and maintain proficiency in English and at least one other language, modern or classical. Children who come to school from non-English backgrounds also have opportunities to develop further proficiencies in their first language. The ACTFL World Readiness Standards are also known as "The Five C's," and are built into each of our curricula as standards for content instruction.
1. COMMUNICATION: Communicate effectively in more than one language in order to function in a variety of situations and for multiple purposes.
- Interpersonal Communication: Learners interact and negotiate meaning in spoken, signed, or written conversations to share information, reactions, feelings, and opinions.
- Interpretive Communication: Learners understand, interpret, and analyze what is heard, read, or viewed on a variety of topics.
- Presentational Communication: Learners present information, concepts, and ideas to inform, explain, persuade, and narrate on a variety of topics using appropriate media and adapting to various audiences of listeners, readers, or viewers.
Standards for communication are outlined in the ACTFL Can-Do statements, which are skills-based benchmarks for communication in each mode and embedded into our curricula.
2. CULTURES: Interact with cultural competence and understanding.
- Relating Cultural Practices to Perspectives: Learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the relationship between the practices and perspectives of the cultures studied.
- Relating Cultural Products to Perspectives: Learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the relationship between the products and perspectives of the cultures studied.
3. CONNECTIONS: Connect with other disciplines and acquire information and diverse perspectives in order to use the language to function in academic and career-related situations.
- Making Connections: Learners build, reinforce, and expand their knowledge of other disciplines while using the language to develop critical thinking and to solve problems creatively.
- Acquiring Information and Diverse Perspectives: Learners access and evaluate information and diverse perspectives that are available through the language and its cultures.
4. COMPARISONS: Develop insight into the nature of language and culture in order to interact with cultural competence.
- Language Comparisons: Learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the nature of language through comparisons of the language studied and their own.
- Cultural Comparisons: Learners use the language to investigate, explain, and reflect on the concept of culture through comparisons of the cultures studied and their own.
5. COMMUNITIES: Communicate and interact with cultural competence in order to participate in multilingual communities at home and around the world.
- School and Global Communities: Learners use the language both within and beyond the classroom to interact and collaborate in their community and the globalized world.
- Lifelong Learning: Learners set goals and reflect on their progress in using languages for enjoyment, enrichment, and advancement.
Click here for a quick guide to the ACTFL World Readiness Standards.