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Dr. Elvira Swender
Education doctor of arts, syracuse university, 1997 Specialization in Second Language Acquisition, Assessment,
and Educational Administration master of science, syracuse university, 1985 Foreign
Language Education bachelor of arts, binghamton
university, 1965 Modern
Languages (Spanish, Russian)
Professional Experience program
director
Director of Professional Programs: American Council
on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
(ACTFL), Yonkers, NY, 1997-present
Direct the ACTFL Certified Oral Proficiency Testing and
Tester Training Program
Direct the ACTFL Professional Development Workshop Program
Supervise Professional Development and Assessment Initiatives
Secure and manage funded projects, research initiatives,
testing contracts
Advise and consult on second language acquisition, pedagogy,
assessment
Supervise and coordinate ACTFL staff and off-site consultants
Director of
Assessment Initiatives, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
,Yonkers, NY, 1996-1997 Editorial Director
for College Spanish and Italian: Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Boston,
MA, 1995-1996 Director of
First Year Program: Middlebury College - The Spanish School, Middlebury,
VT , 1991-1993 Spanish Language
Coordinator: Syracuse University Department of Languages,
Literatures, and Linguistics, Syracuse, NY,
1988-1995 Interim Director:
Foreign Language Education Program, Syracuse University, 1989-1990
project director
Testing for Proficiency: A Research Agenda, funded by the
U.S. Department of Education International Research and Studies Program,
2001-2002 Beyond the OPI - The Standards Assessment Design Project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education International
Research and Studies Program, 1997-2000 Revision of the The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, 1999 The ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners,
funded by the U.S. Department of Education International Research
and Studies Program, 1995-1998
Consultant to
the Defense Language Institute, Monterey CA, 1998-present The Pre OPI: A Computer
Administered Screening Tool (CAST) Consortium of ACTFL, BYU,CAL, DLI,
and SDSU 2001 FLNAEP Conversational
Task Developer and Trainer, in collaboration with the Center For
Applied Linguistics and the American Institutes of Research, 2001-present
Foreign Language
National Assessment for Educational Progress (FLNAEP), Consensus Project
and Test Development Steering Committee, Washington, DC, 1999-2001 Heritage Learners
of Spanish Conference - National Foreign Language Center, Washington,
DC ,
June, 2001 DLI/ACTFL/CAL
Introduction to Oral Proficiency Project, Washington, DC, 2001 Center for Applied
Linguistics: Multi-media Rater Training Project, Washington, DC, 2000 Language Acquisition
Resource Center, San Diego State University d-VOCI, San Diego, CA, 2000 Defense Language
Institute - Proficiency Evaluation Project, 1999-2000 Household International,
U.S. Postal Service, Pacific Bell, Allstate Insurance, AT&T, 1999 ACTFL/Peace
Corps Spanish and French Video Project, Middlebury, VT 1999 NATO Board of
International Language Cooperation, The Netherlands, 1998 ACTFL/Peace
Corps English Language Video Project, Boston, MA, 1998 Texas Educational
Agency: Test of Limited English Proficiency, Austin, TX, 1998 United Airlines
and Brigham Young University: Computer-based
test for in-flight attendants, Chicago, IL and Salt Lake City, UT, 1997 Texas Oral Proficiency
Test for Teachers of Spanish: National Evaluation Systems, Amherst,
MA, 1997 ACTFL/ALC Standard
Speaking Test of English, ALC Press, Tokyo, Japan, 1996-present ACTFL Proficiency
Writing Test for English, Yonkers, NY, 1996 Texas Oral Language
Proficiency Test, Texas Educational Agency, Austin, TX, 1994
spanish teacher
Summer Faculty:
The Spanish School, Middlebury College Language Schools, Middlebury, VT,
1991-1993 and 1998, 1999 Adjunct Instructor
of Spanish: Syracuse University, 1983-1995 Spanish Teacher
grades 7-12: Jamesville-DeWitt
Middle School and High School, Fayetteville-Manlius High School, Gillette
Road Junior High School, Cicero High School, Syracuse, NY; Binghamton Central High School, Binghamton, NY;
U.S. Department of Defense
Schools-Clark Air Force Base, Republic of the Philippines; 1965-1988
Advisory Boards
Defense Language
Institute, Monterey, CA, Chairperson, Academic Advisory Board Brigham Young
University Language Center Advisory Board, 2000-present Language Acquisition
Resource Center, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, National Advisory
Board, 2001-present Monterey Institute
of International Studies Advisory Board, Monterey, CA 2001 New Visions
Task Force on Teacher Recruitment and Retention, 2001
Publications ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines - Writing (Revised 2001), ACTFL Publication, NY 2001
ACTFL OPI Tester
Training Manual - Revised 1999,ACTFL Publication,
NY, 1999 ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines - Speaking (Revised 1999), ACTFL Publication, NY 1999 ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12 Learners,ACTFL Publication, NY, 1998 SST (Standard Speaking
Test of English) Trainer Manual, ALC
Press, Tokyo, Japan, 1997 Puentes: A Spanish Course for High Beginners: Cuaderno
de Práctica, Heinle & Heinle
Publishers, Boston, MA, 1993
& 1997 Entradas Testing Program,
Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Boston, MA 1990 and 1994 Languages To Go: Proficiency I , Proficiency II, Household International Training Program, Language Testing International, New Rochelle,
NY, 1995 Teaching Assistant Training Manual, Syracuse University Department of Languages, Literatures,
and Linguistics, Syracuse, NY, 1990 Video Peer-Coaching: A Model for Excellence in Teaching,
NYSAFLT Annual Report, 1990
grants, awards, certificates
U.S. Department of Education International
Research and Studies Program, ATesting for
Proficiency - A Research Agenda, 2001-2002
U.S. Department of Education International Research and
Studies Program, AStandards-based
Assessment Design Project, ACTFL Headquarters, Yonkers, NY, 1997-2000 National Foreign
Language Center, Summer Institute for Technology, University of Hawaii
at Manoa, HI, 1995 Syracuse University Faculty Leadership Award, Syracuse,
NY, 1993 Syracuse University
Chancellor=s Fund for Innovation,
Syracuse, NY, 1992 American Council
on Education ASpreading the
Word Grant, Washington, DC, 1991 Certified ACTFL
Oral Proficiency Interview Trainer and Tester for Spanish: 1988-present Certified ACTFL
Oral Proficiency Interview Trainer and Tester for English: 1994-present Modern Language
Association Professional Development Grant, Tucson, AZ ,1989 New York State
Permanent Teaching Certificate: Spanish 7-12, 1985 New York University
in Spain Certificate of Merit, Madrid, Spain, 1964
Presentations, Workshops, Seminars Update on the FLNAEP (Foreign Language National Assessment
for Educational Progress),
ACTFL Annual Meeting, Washington, DC 2001
What the OPI
is Telling Us About Language Learners: A Report on Three Testing Initiatives
from the ACTFL Testing Office, ACTFL Annual Meeting, Washington, DC 2001 Introducing the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines - Writing
(Revised 2001), ACTFL Annual
Meeting, Washington, DC, 2001 ”ACTFL OPI Tester
Training Workshop,” Middlebury – Madrid, Madrid, Spain, 2001 The Teaching of Spanish in the United States, Second International
Congress on the Spanish Language,
Royal Academy of the Spanish Language, Valladolid, Spain, October, 2001 Heritage Speakers of Spanish and the Proficiency Scale:
Implications for Instruction and Assessment, CUNY Professional
Development Seminar, Hunter College, NY, 2001 ACTFL Reading Passages Rating Workshop, ACTFL Annual
Meeting, Boston, MA, 2000 Meeting Different Learner Needs in Government Language
Training, ACTFL Annual
Meeting, Boston, MA, 2000 Language Learners in the 21st Century: Let=s Get Real, Keynote Address,
Bronx High School of Science, Bronx, NY, 2000 Oral Proficiency Assessment and the Implications for
Instruction, Indiana University
of Pennsylvania, PA, 2000 Oral Proficiency Familiarization, Defense Language Institute, Monterey, CA, 2000 Great Expectations: A New Generation of Language Learners
Defense Language
Institute Professional Development Conference Keynote Address, Monterey,
CA, 1999 Modified Oral Proficiency Interview Familiarization Workshop,
Springfield Public Schools,
Springfield, MA, 1999 CTFL OPI Tester
Renorming, Dallas, TX, 1999 Revising the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, ACTFL Annual
Meeting, Dallas, TX, 1999 From the Classroom to the Boardroon: The Use of the CTFL
OPI in the Workplace, ACTFL Annual
Meeting, Dallas, TX, 1999 The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines - Speaking (Revised
1999), Interagency Language Rountable, Washington, D.C., 1999 Babel is Not a Tower Anymore, COFLT Keynote Address, Eugene, OR, 1999 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training, Workshop,
Middlebury Language Schools, Middlebury, VT, 1999 ACTFL Modified Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training
Workshop, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, 1999 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, San Diego State University, 1999 ACTFL
OPI Tester and Trainer Renorming Meetings, New York, NY and Chicago, IL, 1998 Introducing the ACTFL Performance Guidelines for K-12
Learners, ACTFL Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, 1998 The National Standards for Foreign Language Learning:
Communications Workshop, Cromwell, CT, 1998 SST - Standard Speaking Test of English, TESOL Annual
Meeting, Seattle, WA, 1998 The Language Project: A Report to United Airlines on
Adult Language Learners, Chicago, IL, 1997 What the OPI is Telling Us About Language Learners, ACTFL Annual Meeting,
Nashville, TN, 1997 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency, Professional Development Seminar, Antigua, Guatemala, 199; Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency, Fifth Annual
Symposium on Language Teaching,
Alajuela, Costa Rica, 1997 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency,Syracuse Language Systems, Syracuse, NY, 1997 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency, Syracuse University
Project Advance, Syracuse, NY, 1997; The National Standards for Foreign Language Learning:
Familiarization Workshop, houghton-Mifflin/McDougall Littel Publishers,
Boston, MA, 1997 Testing Heritage Speakers of Spanish: Special Considerations, ACTFL Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, 1996 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 1996 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency, Fourth Annual
Symposium on Language Teaching,
Alajuela, Costa Rica, 1996 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency, Heinle &
Heinle Publishers, Laguna Hills,
CA, 1996 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency,
University of Nebraska, Omaha,
NE, 1996 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency,
Montclair State University,
Montclair, NJ, 1996 A Training Program for Heritage Speakers of Spanish,
ACTFL
Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA, 1995 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, California
State University, Fullerton, CA, 1995 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, McGill University,
Montreal, Canada, 1995 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, Carnegie Mellon
University, Pittsburgh, PA,1995 Key Concepts in Teaching and Testing for Proficiency,
Texas State Supervisors, Austin,
TX, 1994 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, Georgia Institute
of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 1994 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, University of Texas at San Antonio, TX 1993 Use of the AOPI in the Workplace: A Trial By Fire, ACTFL Annual
Meeting, San Antonio, TX, 1993 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop,
City of Dallas, TX,1993 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, U.S. Department of Immigration and Naturalization Service, Glynco,
GA, 1993 ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Tester Training Workshop, University
of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 1992 Using Multiple Methods to Evaluate Teaching Assistants, The Future
Professoriate Program of the Graduate
School of Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 1994, 1993 Video Peer-Coaching: A Model for Excellence in Teaching, ACTFL Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, 1989 Bridging the Gap: Use of Authentic Texts to Develop Advanced
level Speaking Competency, FLACNY Regional Meeting, Syracuse, NY, 1989 |