MONTICELLO — Five Monticello High School Spanish students have earned language proficiency awards from the State of Illinois.
Earning the Seal of Biliteracy were Grace Talbert, Andrew Rudolph and Ethan Brakke.
“It states that students have achieved a high proficiency in a language other than English,” MHS Spanish instructor Chelsea Ehrhardt said.
“They can take these assessments and have something show for the fact that they are multilingual, which is really cool, and get some recognition for those advantages they have.”
In addition, Leah Neef and Riley Combes earned commendations towards a Seal of Biliteracy, but did not earn a full Seal.
It can take 12 to 18 months to prepare for the Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Language (AAPPL) test, which is taken online and measures second language proficiency.
The Monticello High School students decided to pursue the Seal of Literacy for differing reasons. Rudolph hopes it gives him a leg up on college, where he plans to pursue a minor in Spanish. Combes is also considering a Spanish minor.
For Brakke, it is a badge of honor, as he is a native of Ecuador who has long been the master of two languages.
For the most part, the students agreed the listening/speaking part of the AAPPL test was the most difficult. Assessments in reading and writing Spanish were also part of the test.
Ehrhardt added that she likes the word “proficiency” better than “fluency” when describing the achievement, as the latter is easier to define.
“Fluency is kind of an ambiguous word, because fluency can be a lot of different things to a lot of different people,” Ehrhardt said.
“I like proficiency better because it gives our kids an idea that the fact they are developing bilingual instead of the fact that they’ll never be a native speaker. That’s nothing to be sad about, we’re celebrating their proficiency.”
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July 10, 2021 at 08:29PM
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Students earn state Seal of Biliteracy | News | journal-republican.com - Piatt County Journal-Republican
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