The World Council for Torah Education

Educational Programs

Hebrew Proficiency Consortium

Day school administrators are often confronted by the following question: “My child has been a good Hebrew student in your school for 12 years. Why can’t he speak Hebrew ?” Proponents of the proficiency approach to teaching language would claim that the problem lies in the traditional achievement based model utilized in most day schools.

The achievement model presents students with a specific curriculum and then evaluates their performance on the particular vocabulary and/or grammar goals of the lesson. Both the presentation and the evaluation are limited to the context of the classroom and thus represent an “inauthentic” use of the language. As a result, students can be high achievers, but have little facility with the language outside of the classroom context.

The proficiency approach, on the other hand, attempts to give students an authentic language experience by having them interact with “authentic language sources” (language written by and for native speakers) along with activities that force them to utilize the language in a broader context. Language proficiency experts have defined nine levels of proficiency in the four language skill areas - reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These definitions are useful in the setting of curriculum goals and the assessment of student progress. The proficiency approach is a teaching methodology and can, thus, be employed with a variety of curricula.

In March, 1999 the World Council for Torah Education created the Hebrew Language Proficiency Consortium that includes 15 day schools in North America. The language proficiency approach was developed in the United States over 20 years ago, but is only now being introduced to the day school Hebrew language curriculum through the initiative of the World Council in cooperation with the Department of Jewish Zionist Education of the Jewish Agency and the Department of Hebrew and Near Eastern Languages of Brandeis University. The initial activity of the Consortium was an introductory seminar that was held for Hebrew language coordinators at Brandeis in June, 1999. Scheduled subsequent activities include:

1. Teacher Training Seminars

2. A Proficiency Assessment Workshop

3. A Cooperative Project on the Setting of Curriculum Goals and Objectives

In the future, the consortium plans to create a bank of authentic language materials selected specifically for the curricula of the member schools.

The Hebrew Language Proficiency Consortium provides an effective model for curriculum and professional development that can be replicated in other regions and in other curricular areas.