The power of performance-based assessment: Languages as a model for the liberal arts enterprise

Abstract

The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines and the World-Readiness Standards for Language Learning have had an enormous impact on the design and delivery of instruction in the second language and foreign language fields in the United States; this, in turn, has had an impact on the nature of learning outcomes in second and foreign language education, as demonstrated in the essays in this volume. With these performance metrics and curricular foci in mind, experts in the second and foreign language fields have engaged in the purposeful design and delivery of curricula and the assessment of learning outcomes that meet the aspirations of the Association of American Colleges and University’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise program (LEAP) as well as the expectations of the regional accrediting agencies for higher education in the United States (Higher Learning Commission, Middle States Commission on Higher Education, New England Association Schools and Colleges Commission on Institutions of Higher Education, South Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission). In this context, the second and foreign language fields can serve as a model for many other liberal arts disciplines in the development and use of their own discipline-specific performance benchmarks and the development and implementation of curricula that foster the attainment of measurable student learning outcomes.