Successfully aligning instruction with proficiency-based standards necessitates buy-in from multiple stakeholders. For example, curricular (re)design benefits from financial and logistical support from upper administration, and a willingness from faculty to train themselves on proficiency-oriented instruction and alter courses and teaching styles accordingly. One stakeholder that is often overlooked during program evaluation, however, is the students themselves (McKay & Davis, 2018). Students are one of the stakeholders that are most affected by curricular (re)design, and their perspectives are critical to successful program evaluation. This presentation explores how student perspectives can inform curricular redesign at the University of Rhode Island as we implement our Proficiency Initiative, an initiative that seeks to increase students' proficiency by focusing on faculty training, proficiency testing and curriculum revamping (see Spino & de Bruin, 2020). Specifically, we investigate students' familiarity with the Proficiency Initiative, whether their OPIc testing experiences correlate with their scores, and whether classroom experiences correlate with OPIc scores.
Students studying Arabic, Chinese, German, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish filled out a questionnaire and then took the OPIc (Spring 2021 cohort, n = 284) or completed a questionnaire, the OPIc, and then another questionnaire (Spring 2019 cohort, n = 345). Results indicated that not all students were aware of the Proficiency Initiative, and that students' classroom experiences do not correlate with their OPIc scores. Regarding their OPIc testing experience, students' answers gave insights in three areas-- whether they were familiar with the OPIc test format, their views of the computerized test, and feelings during the test. We found students were mostly not familiar with the OPIc test format, were either somewhat comfortable or somewhat uncomfortable talking to the Avatar, and they somewhat agreed or disagreed that the OPIc prompts allowed them to show off their speaking abilities. All three had a weak but significant correlation with their OPIc scores. Students' feelings (i.e. confidence and enjoyment) during the test were positively correlated with their OPIc scores, with a moderate correlation (r = .411, p < .001) for confidence and a weak correlation for enjoyment (r = .297, p < .001). Nervousness and level of anxiety were negatively correlated with OPIc performance (r = -.253, p < .001 and -.197, p = .001 respectively). The discussion centers around how students' perspectives are shaping decisions related to the implementation of this Proficiency Initiative and the redesign of the language curricula.
McKay, T. H., & Davis, J. M. (2018). Planning for Useful Evaluation: Users, Uses, Questions. In J. M. Davis & T. H. McKay (Eds.), A Guide to Useful Evaluation of Language Programs (pp. 15-26). Georgetown University Press.
Spino, L. & de Bruin, K. (2020). Increasing graduates' employability through language proficiency and dual degrees. The Language Educator, pp. 32-36.
