Help me sort through foreign lang. levels

[Penguin]

I am trying to sort through foreign language levels for high school course design, and perhaps someone can untangle my thinking.  In particular, I have two things on my mind:  Reading levels and Correlation w/ the Common European Framework for Reference for Languages (CEFR).

 

Reading Levels

 

When would a student read a book like The Little Prince in the foreign language? 

How about Harry Potter? 

 

I am looking for answers in this format: French II, Arabic III

 

Correlation of American High School Levels w/ CEFR

 

Does anyone have any insight into correlating the standard American foreign language (FL) sequence with CEFR? What I would most like to know is the correlation between AP and CEFR.

 

American sequence (please correct me if this is wrong - I am uncertain):

 

Foreign Lang. Level I

Foreign Lang. Level II

Foreign Lang. Level III

AP Foreign Lang.

 

If the student completes Level I in middle school, is AP normally taken in 11th grade? 

 

CEFR:

 

A1

A2

B1

B2

C1

C2

 

If you want to know more about CEFR, this web site gives a simple summary.  Scroll down to the chart.

 

 

[bettyandbob]

Ds read The Little Prince in The equivalent of French IV. He could have read it earlier. When you have a class group you have to consider what you are going to with the literature. What sort of group discussion you are going to have, what the nuances in the literature are, etc.

 

In our district languages are usually levels I through IV then AP or levels I, II, and III, then IB1 and IBSL2 or IBHL2. schools that offer AP do not offer IB.

[Tress]

Bump and  :bigear: .

[Loesje22000]

I thought Joan of Geneva made such a correlating post for German or French.

I know from comparing Belgium ( where I live) to The Netherlands ( where I come from) not al European countries have the same endgoals for foreign languages. And the trackingsystems make it possible one reach A2 in grade 12 and another B2 in grade 12.

 

For a collegebound student following a foreign language track B2 /C1 seems to be the goal.

although I'm not sure everybody reaches C1.

There is a difference sometimes between the first foreign language and the others.

[Loesje22000]

Le Petit Prince is considered B1 due to its poetic style.

 

Harry Potter is considered B1/B2 level.

[Loesje22000]

Is this thread helpful?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/517534-german-vs-french-sat-ii-ap-and-goethe-exam-our-comparison/

[Penguin]

:seeya: Tress!  I have not "seen" you recently.

 

loesje22000, thanks for finding Joan in Geneva's thread.  Yes, that was useful. 

 

So... from what I read, I am guessing that an AP lands somewhere between B1 and B2.  This matches my intuition - a foreigner has to pass an exam that approximates C1 in order to study in a Danish university.  I didn't think that an AP is up to C1.  

 

One of the reasons that I was wondering is that the AP International Diploma allows a student to "submit a letter from an administrator at his or her school verifying the student’s mastery of a language not currently available within the AP suite of exams."  Clearly, Danish is not within the AP suite.  But how could a homeschooler verify such mastery?  With a B1 exam?  B2?  Maybe I will write to the AP Board and see what response I get.

 

 

And I still don't know what to call DS's Danish course next year. Maybe I will just call it Danish II just to show that he is not starting from zero.

 

[madteaparty]

Just listening in. For French, I thought an AP class was either in addition (contemporaneously) or something extra after French IV. Also my cousin told me that in her public school district 3 years of middle school French count for one year of high school French.

[flyingiguana]

Back when I was in high school (US) AP was the fourth year of language study.

 

However, at our local high school, it's the 6th year.

 

I assume this accounts for the fact that some kids take foreign language in middle school and that each of those middle school years is really a half year.  But they seem to have no way to pick up students who come in with no foreign language in middle school.  Those kids just can't take the AP class.  They're dumped in a level 1 class that apparently (in high school) only covers as much as a year of middle school -- which the high school has already admitted is only half a year.

 

And now they've instituted a skills test before a student can go to the next level.  Which sounds like a great idea, except that there are a number of students who got A's and B's in Spanish 1 who didn't pass the test.  So they can't go on to Spanish 2.  The school has told them to repeat Spanish 1.  But they already did well in that class, so how will that get them to passing the skills test and into Spanish 2?  And how are these kids going to get their 2 yrs of foreign language in for college admissions?

 

This is on top of the fact that the Spanish 1 is really, apparently, only a half year of instruction.

[flyingiguana]

a quick google brings up these reading lists:

 

for the French Lit test:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP_French_Literature   

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/apfrlit.htm

 

For the French Language and Culture test:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/39628.html

 

Here's a pdf describing the Language and Culture test:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/french-lang-cppg01-dec2011.pdf

[Loesje22000]

In Europe a B2 exam would definetly helpful to proof anything.

But I'm not familiar with the AP system, so I have no idea what they would accept...

 

Contacting them sounds as a great idea.