Global Self-Assessment Grid
Global Self-Assessment Grid
The Global Self-Assessment Grid is designed to help students determine what they are able to understand and to communicate in a world language. It also helps them set goals concerning what they want to be able to understand and communicate. The Global Grid gives them a road map to help them develop proficiency in the language they are learning.
The Global Self-Assessment Grid is based on the European Language Portfolio (ELP) designed by the Council of Europe and the LinguaFolio designed by the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL) in the United States. NCSSFL states:
"The vision of LinguaFolio is to allow seamless progress in language learning as individuals move from one level to another, from one program to another, and even as they cease to participate in formal language instruction but continue active language learning independently. The goal is to empower each individual learner to take responsibility for her or his language proficiency and be able to continue to develop proficiency independently and autonomously once the formal sequence of language instruction has ended.
When teachers and learners work together to document language learning in this manner, language learners, as well as teachers and professors working at various levels, have a common language to describe what learners are able to do. Teachers and professors are able to articulate what demands courses make of learners and what level of proficiency is needed in order to attempt a course. Once this common language is established and utilized, meaningful articulation of language learning from pre-Kindergarten to post-graduate and beyond can and should result, thereby moving many more students to higher levels of proficiency efficiently and utilizing limited resources wisely."
Self-assessment of Communication
The Global Self-Assessment Grid describes what students can do in terms of the three modes of communication: Interpersonal (conversation), Interpretive (Reading and Listening), Presentational (Speaking and Writing for an Audience). The grid allows students to record their progress in each of the modes separately. In other words, students may be more advanced in Listening skills than they are in Conversation skills. They can indicate this on the grid and work to advance all their communication skills, some more quickly than others. The small circles at the bottom of the squares within the grid show how far the students have progressed at that level. As they become stronger communicators, they can color in more circles advancing across the grid to greater levels of proficiency.
The Global Self-Assessment Grid is also divided into four broad levels of proficiency:
- Surviving
- Exploring
- Engaging
- Established
Generally students will work in the first two levels: surviving and exploring. As students move into AP or IB preparation, they will move into the Engaging level.
To help students understand the dimensions of each level of proficiency, there are "can-do" statements for each mode of communcation. These can-do statements help students understand the types of tasks they must accomplish to be proficient at the various levels. The lists are not exhaustive. We recommend that students add other statements that reflect their learning and also fit the profile of the sample tasks at each level.
Because the lists of "can-do" statements can seem overwhelming, we have designed the "Top Ten Communication Skills" as an entry point into the more detailed "can-do" statements. We consider these skills as critical to the development of communication. Each skill gives an example of what a beginning language learner can do all the way to a highly proficient language learner. They represent the skills that language learners develop continuously over time.
