The ABCs of ACTFL Certification - Moving from Concept to Completion

Jayasri Srinivasan, Alice Wu, Jody Gabler, Mila Vescherevich, and Derina Samuel, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA

Introduction

Have you ever thought about working towards your ACTFL certification, but been afraid of what it might involve? Have you been daunted by the idea of even getting started? What if we told you that not only is the process well organized and doable, but it also offers you the wonderful opportunity to connect with a diverse group of amazing people from around the world? Some of those interviewed were the following: a mother of five from Afghanistan, an astronomer from India, a retired physicist from Russia, an ecologist from Argentina, a psychologist from France, and a Chinese biochemist turned artist, just to name a few. And in our interactive sessions with these fascinating people, we also got to refine our interviewing skills through feedback from a skilled trainer. Does this pique your interest? Then, read on! In this article, we break down the why’s and how’s of the path to full certification, step by step. We hope to convince you that this endeavor is achievable, enriching, and worth pursuing.

To provide some context, the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP), which is under the Center for Teaching Innovation, was tasked by the Graduate School to assess all multilingual graduate students who might have instructional responsibilities at Cornell University. These graduate students are required to demonstrate a minimum proficiency level of Advanced Low (AL), in order to teach. While ITAP instructors have long been trained in the OPI, we decided to pursue the pathway to full certification as part of our continued professional development and to closely align our existing language assessment process and courses to the ACTFL criteria. This article outlines our journey towards acquiring our Full Certification as ACTFL OPI Testers in English.

Pathway to Full Certification

I. OPI Assessment Workshop 

The first step of our training was to participate in a three-part OPI Assessment Workshop. During the first two parts, our ACTFL trainer explained how to rate a language sample using ACTFL’s proficiency levels and how to elicit a ratable language sample through an interview. For the third and final session of the workshop, our group had to find non-native English speaking volunteers with whom we could take turns practicing our interviewing skills during which our trainer guided us through the process and answered our questions. After each interview, we discussed the elicitation techniques, the effectiveness of the particular questions, and the level of proficiency that was demonstrated by the speaker. Although all of the instructors on our team had participated in at least one OPI Assessment Workshop in the past, this was our first time doing this workshop online. We appreciated the online version, as it spread the workshop out over three weeks with one session per week, in contrast to the two-day in-person training format. By spreading out the training sessions, we had more time to carefully review the extensive training materials, digest the information, and practice our interviewing skills.

After completing the OPI Assessment Workshop, we were eligible to register for the asynchronous online Full Certification training course. This course consists of several online modules, which begins with reinforcing and building upon what we had learned in the workshop. In this part, we thoroughly explored the ACTFL criteria for each major proficiency level and learned about the intricate nuances between the sublevels.

II. Full Certification Training Course 

The Full Certification Training Course consists of four phases: a rating activity, guided interviews, independent interviews, and certification interviews.

Phase 1: Rating Activity

In the rating activity, we were presented with multiple sample OPIs and needed to meet a minimum accuracy level in our ratings. Upon successful completion of this activity, we moved on to the applied phases of the course, in which we conducted full interviews with non-native speakers.

Phase 2: Guided Interviews

For the guided interviews phase, we each had to find two volunteer participants at levels that our trainer identified for us. These interviews with the participant were conducted over Zoom, and our trainer observed us in the background (video and audio were cut). As we proceeded through the interview, our trainer took detailed notes that they later shared with us. If we were unsure of how to phrase a question or felt stuck, we could move into a breakout room and get some input on how to elicit a response to better evaluate the participant's proficiency level. After the interview was finished and the volunteer had left, our trainer remained on Zoom with us to debrief the interview, offer feedback on our questioning techniques and discuss a rating for the language sample we had elicited. Our trainer’s incisive and meticulously detailed feedback was invaluable in helping us hone our interviewing skills. Once these guided interviews were completed, we reviewed the audio recording and took detailed notes on a rating grid template provided by ACTFL.

Phase 3: Independent Interviews

During the next phase, we conducted four independent interviews for which our trainer was not present. We had to interview speakers at each of the four major levels: novice, intermediate, advanced and superior, review our interviews, and submit four recordings with corresponding rating grids in which we provided justification for our assessment ratings. While we made an informed guess as to each volunteer’s proficiency level prior to the assessment, we all ended up conducting more than four interviews in order to have the required levels for submission. Depending on the proficiency level of the speaker, each interview took between 15 and 30 minutes to complete. After reviewing our interviews, we sent our audio recordings and corresponding rating grids to our trainer. Our interviews were thoroughly reviewed and we received detailed feedback regarding various aspects of our interview process, as well as suggestions for improvement.

Phase 4: Certification Interviews

The final phase of the course was the certification interviews. For this portion, each of us was assigned anywhere from two to four additional interviews at specific levels that we had to submit. The number and level of these assignments was based on our trainer's feedback from the previous phase. Again, in order to fulfill the required levels, most of us had to conduct extra interviews. We followed a similar process, as in the previous step, and again received extensive constructive feedback from our trainer. Once our trainer had reviewed and approved our final interviews, ACTFL was notified that our course certification was complete and we received our certificates.

Finding the Right Volunteers

To find non-native speakers at all four levels of proficiency (novice, intermediate, advanced, and superior) was not always easy, and we relied on a diverse shared network of local and global volunteers. Our interviewees included members of the graduate and professional students housing community at Cornell, neighborhood churches, and the local ESL class “Open Doors English” that consisted of recently resettled immigrants. We also reached out to friends and family to identify and compile an interviewee list, which included professors, researchers, lecturers, and alumni. Our interviewee pool highlighted cultural, linguistic and geographic diversity and included volunteers from Afghanistan, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Israel, Madagascar, Nepal, Peru, Puerto Rico, Russia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Turkey, and Ukraine. These volunteers spoke a host of languages such as Bengali, Cantonese, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Mandarin, Nepali, Pashto, Punjabi, Quechua, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, Turkish, and Ukrainian. Our volunteers’ distinctive backgrounds added a depth and richness to our interviewing experience. We conducted all our interviews on Zoom and sought prior permission from our interviewees to record these sessions. However, we only had to submit audio recordings of our interviews as part of our samples.

Concluding Remarks

In retrospect, the journey to acquire full certification was an instructive and enlightening experience. Although the process certainly had its challenges, we have benefited significantly from having undergone this rigorous and thorough training. The full certification is awarded for four years, and if this is of interest, it allows the participants to work for ACTFL as official OPI raters.

Acknowledgements

We are thankful and deeply appreciative of our trainer’s efforts and diligence in listening to hours of our interviews and guiding us through the entire process.

We are also profoundly grateful to our many volunteers, from various walks of life and from all over the world, for their grace and patience during the interviews and generosity with their time. Their impactful stories were touching and inspiring. Finally, it was our collaborative and supportive effort as a team that reinforced a sense of camaraderie and shared purpose for us and in the work we do every day.

Dr. Derina Samuel is an associate director at the Center for Teaching Innovation, providing leadership for the International TA Program and Graduate Programming at Cornell University. Her research and teaching interests over the past two decades have focused on future faculty programming and equity-minded teaching.

Jody Gabler is an instructor with the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) in Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation. She especially enjoys teaching pronunciation and curriculum development.

Alice Wu is an instructor with the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) in Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation. Her special interests include intercultural communication and cross-cultural transitions.

Mila Veshcherevich is an instructor with the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) in Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation. Her other interests include teaching Russian.

Dr. Jayasri Srinivasan is an instructor with the International Teaching Assistant Program (ITAP) in Cornell University’s Center for Teaching Innovation. Her other interests include freelance writing and learning new languages.