The demand for language skills brings scholars from around the world to participate at the ACTFL workshops held at Brigham Young University. BYU is a leader in providing language-learning opportunities to its students.
PROVO, Utah (June 20, 2014)—“In an increasingly connected global society, the demand for professionals who also have sound language skills is skyrocketing,” said Ray Clifford, director of Brigham Young University’s Center for Language Studies and associate dean in the College of Humanities. Ray said that with this increasing demand, BYU is encouraging students to better their language skills to provide them with future advantages and opportunities.
At four-day summer institute put on by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) on the BYU campus, Clifford told participants, “Every semester, about half of the BYU student population is enrolled in language classes, and BYU offers courses in about 60 different languages.”
While learning a language, students have the opportunity to earn a Language Certificate, offered by the Center for Language Studies. Those working towards the language certificate are required to take a few upper-level language classes and pass the ACTFL oral and writing exams.
The required ACTFL certification is why these workshops are significant for BYU language professors and students. The workshops help professors understand and administer the ACTFL test, which in turn allows them to help their students improve their language skills. “A guiding principle of the workshops is that if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it,” Clifford said.
He added, “Learning how to assess language ability according to the system’s functional hierarchy of real-world communication abilities provides faculty with another perspective against which they can judge students’ progress and abilities. The faculty can also identify and help their students remediate deficiencies that may be preventing them from accurately communicating in complex and sometimes sensitive situations.”
Helping faculty assess student language skills isn’t the only benefit of the ACTFL workshops. To practice assessing language abilities, participants were able to practice with student volunteers. Colette Steele, a BYU student learning Russian, said that opportunities like this help her to practice her Russian. “I want to go on a mission to Russia, and the Church needs people with these language skills. Knowing the language and background will benefit me,” Colette said.
Even missionaries, from the local Missionary Training Center, were brought in to help the ACTFL participants develop their testing skills. Two elders headed to the Japan Tokyo Mission said that being able to practice conversations is important. Elder Arbo said, “This helps me get an overall feel for Japanese conversations, and the better our language is, the better we can communicate with the people.”
Elder Spindler added, “What we practice here is going to be what we use every day.” He added that learning Japanese will create opportunities even after the mission. “There are always job opportunities when we get back home if you know another language.”
Language learners are proof that learning a language makes a difference when it comes to future opportunities. Spencer Liebel, a BYU graduate who applied to clinical psychology graduate programs, said, “The Language Certificate helped me stand out from the crowd of other applicants who had similar grades and tests scores and helped showcase my abilities beyond numerical quantifiers. In each of my grad school interviews, the interviewers asked me about my Language Certificate. In the end, I gained admission to my first-choice university. The Language Certificate helped me achieve this goal and will only continue to help me in the future.”
Another BYU graduate Nate Rowley, who majored in Spanish, said, “Being able to speak Spanish has opened up numerous employment opportunities for me. When the employers ask me how good my Spanish is, I tell them about my language certificate. They are always very impressed. My current position allows me to travel to Puerto Rico to work with our Spanish-speaking clients there. I am so grateful for the language programs at BYU, but I am most grateful for the Language Certificate program because it provides solid evidence of my second language skills.”
The Language Certificate program is available to all students at BYU. Clifford said, “The Language Certificate program has awarded certificates to students in about 70 different academic majors.” Allen Bentley, a computer science major, said, “I’m doing the Language Certificate to keep up on the language I learned on my mission. Plus the classes are fun and it looks good on my resume.”
Clifford added, “Second-language ability is a core competence of Brigham Young University – it adds value to our graduates and it is a skill set that other universities cannot easily replicate.”
For more information on the Language Certificate program, visit the Center for Language Studies’ website.
—Stephanie Bahr Bentley BA English ’14
Photography courtesy of Bryce Bolick