The Cardinal

OSU students with Seals of Biliteracy are now able to enroll in advanced language courses without taking OSU placement tests, and high school teachers in all of the Central States can now access CAAP assessments.

Tatiana Friedman, The Ohio State University 
Rebecca Bias, The Ohio State University

The Ohio State University’s Center for Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (CLLC) has been working diligently on two major initiatives supporting high school students learning world languages. The first of these involved years of work and layers of approvals: ensuring OSU recognizes the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy to waive the elementary language series requirement (levels 1-3). Initiated in California in 2011 and now adopted by all 50 states, the Seal of Biliteracy recognizes high school students in the U.S. who achieve proficiency in both English and another language. The Ohio Department of Education adopted the Seal in 2017, setting rigorous criteria for the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy. 

Prior to this initiative at OSU, students with the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy whose program of study included a foreign language requirement would need to undergo additional testing to prove proficiency in a non-English language; additionally, students with the Ohio Seal interested in pursuing further study in their seal language would still need to take OSU’s placement test in that language. Now, students with the Ohio Seal of Biliteracy will be considered as having completed the introductory world language series. For Spanish, this will place them in the fifth level; for all other languages, they will be placed into the fourth level if it is offered at OSU. Students with a Seal of Biliteracy awarded in another state may have the same opportunity: as long as the Seal in the state in question has requirements that are as or more rigorous than Ohio’s, these students will also earn the waiver of the elementary language series. 

Angela Gardner
Spanish Teacher, Ross High School

There are abundant resources in the world language education universe –professional publications: blogs, tutorial videos, websites, and so many more. The Cardinal, our OFLA newsletter publication, has a long-standing career among them, including print and electronic iterations with many archives to consider. Like the bird it is named for, The Cardinal should stand out from its surroundings, easily captivating and holding our attention and curiosity. 

Now that we have entered a time of the school year that was aptly coined “DEVOLSON,” the “Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November” by Kelly Treleaven, many of us could use a bright, captivating lesson to help our students’ learning soar.  I’d like to invite our readership to consider sharing these little feathers you keep in your cap with us all in an article this year. I’ll start. 

Far too late, I discovered an activity called “Running dictation.” Have you heard of it? You can find the Comprehensible Classroom blog iteration by Martina Bex, here: https://comprehensibleclassroom.com/2011/06/29/running-dictation. 

IPAST Applications Now Open!

Terrell A. Morgan, Emeritus Professor of Hispanic Linguistics
The Ohio State University 

The Center for Latin American Studies and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The Ohio State University are excited to announce Intensive Portuguese Abroad for Spanish Teachers (IPAST), a program in Portuguese language and culture consisting of online learning, followed by a three-week exchange experience in Curitiba, in southern Brazil. Live the language and culture and come home speaking Portuguese!