Developing Professional-Level Language Proficiency

Description

This book examines approaches to teaching students making the transition from 'advanced' or 'superior' proficiency in a foreign language to 'near-native' ability.

Betty Lou Leaver is Senior Specialist in Curriculum and Faculty Development at the American Councils for International Education and Fellow at the National Foreign Language Center. Boris Shekhtman is President of the Specialized Language Training Center and Lecturer in the Department of Modern Languages at Howard University.

'Betty Lou Leaver and Boris Shekhtman's recent book Developing Professional-Level Language Proficiency is a significant contribution to the research in foreign language education. The book is a landmark in that it is the first of its kind to address the special problems and concerns relevant to teaching at the advanced, superior and distinguished levels according to the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Proficiency Scale.' Benjamin Rifkin '... informative and thorough in providing a descriptive overview of successful language programs at the upper levels ... the authors almost unanimously attend to the learner, and to the sociolinguistic and sociocultural aspects of language learning and teaching in their practice ... I recommend this volume to language instructors, program managers, researchers and advanced learners who seek to learn more about what might be on offer to them.' Huamei Han, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at University of Toronto