Nationally Recognized Faculty Focusing on Student Success Effort

Four years after receiving the official title of an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Oral Proficiency Interview Tester of French Dr. Maria Adamowicz-Hariasz from our Department of Modern Languages, was just recognized with a highly selective and prestigious invitation to become a trainer of certified testers. 

This past fall, Maria Adamowicz-Hariasz received an official invitation to the apprentice trainer program leading to certification as an American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) Tester Trainer.  OPI Tester Certification is a highly valued professional credential that is recognized nationally and internationally.  It is issued after a long and arduous process that requires hours of training, rating and interviewing.

This invitation is highly selective, issued only every 8-10 years. As the only French apprentice trainer in the group of 11 other apprentices representing other major languages (English, Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese), she participated in the 5-day workshop in Boston to successfully complete Phase I of the Trainer Apprenticeship thanks in large part to the generous travel funds from her department and the dean’s office. 

The OPI is a global assessment that measures language holistically by determining patterns of strengths and weaknesses.  It measures proficiency in a given language through an interactive, adaptive and learner-centered conversation that feels very natural and yet is highly structured and standardized. 

The Department of Modern Languages at the University of Akron is among a very few departments in the U.S. that conducts official OPI interviews as an assessment of their graduating majors, because a four fulltime faculty members are trained and certified as OPI Testers. This training and the guidelines for proficiency levels and associated assessments developed by ACTFL have been instrumental in establishing rigorous, achievable, and real-world relevant learning outcomes for students in the UA language courses, in developing teaching materials and implementing teaching methodologies that facilitate the achievement of these internationally recognized proficiency goals as a foundation for sustainable student success.

The French Quarter
In addition to this professional achievement and recognition, Maria Adamowicz-Hariasz is also the Faculty Adviser for a new living-learning community that will open in the fall 2011, called the French Quarter.   Its purpose will be to provide interested students with opportunities to more deeply develop their proficiency in French language and understanding of French culture as a foundation for meaningful engagement and life-long success within an increasingly competitive and globalized world community.

A native speaker of French, a student from the Université du Maine- Le Mans, with which UA signed an academic partnership agreement in the summer of 2010, will serve as a Peer Mentor and s/he will interact with the UA students on a daily basis, recreating a French milieu in the middle of our campus. 

In addition to everyday interaction in French, members of the French Quarter community will have a chance to engage in various activities in the residence and outside, such as participating in weekly French Coffee Hour (open to all UA students), cooking and enjoying French food, seeing and discussing films, and attending exhibits, readings, and shows.