ACTFL Performance Descriptors
The ACTFL performance descriptors for language learners (2015) provide details of the expected language output of learners across the different proficiency levels. And by performance, it implies the “language ability that has been practiced and is within familiar contexts and content areas” (p. 5). Therefore, the immediate focus of the proficiency-based dictionary of the Yoruba language is the performance descriptors of beginning learners of Yoruba. As indicated in the performance descriptor, language learning is complex, and the modality by which learners learn, cognitive factors relating to age, and the environment of learning, such as the classroom setting or immersion in the cultural setting, are very important factors that determine learners’ experiences (2015, 2). Regardless of the learning environment or setting, this elementary-level proficiency-based dictionary of Yoruba language constitutes a very rich language learning resource that is grounded in foreign language teaching methods. Therefore, the vocabulary words in the dictionary are organized to provide learning contents that are appropriate for beginner learners of Yoruba. This dictionary will therefore provide elementary learners of Yoruba with the tools to learn Yoruba vocabulary and their use in real-world situations, while factoring in the learners proficiency in the language.
The table below provides details about the performance descriptor for Novice (Beginner) learners.
| Beginner
Domains |
Functions | Contexts/content | Text types | Language Control | Vocabulary | Communication
strategy |
Cultural Awareness | |
| Expresses self in conversations on very familiar topics using a variety of words, phrases, simple sentences, and questions that have been highly practiced and memorized.
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Can ask highly predictable and formulaic questions and respond to such questions by listing, naming, and identifying. May show emerging evidence of the ability to engage in simple conversation.
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Able to function in some personally relevant contexts on topics that relate to basic biographical information. May show emerging evidence of the ability to communicate in highly practiced contexts related to oneself and immediate environment
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Understands and produces highly practiced words and phrases and an occasional sentence. Able to ask formulaic or memorized questions
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Can usually comprehend highly practiced and basic messages when supported by visual or contextual clues, redundancy or restatement, and when the message contains familiar structures. Can control memorized language sufficiently to be appropriate to the context and understood by those accustomed to dealing with language learners, however at times with difficulty.
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Able to understand and produce a number of high frequency words, highly practiced expressions, and formulaic questions.
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May use some or all of the following strategies to maintain communication, able to: • Imitate modeled words
• Use facial expressions and gestures • Repeat words • Resort to first language • Ask for repetition • Indicate lack of understanding
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May use culturally appropriate gestures and formulaic expressions in highly practiced applications. May show awareness of the most obvious cultural differences or prohibitions, but may often miss cues indicating miscommunication.
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In relation to the performance descriptors and the ACTFL proficiency guidelines, the Yoruba Proficiency-Based Dictionary provides contents based on what learners can do consistently across the different modes of communication—interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational.