PACE Project Research Opportunities
Graduate students, language instructors, and other researchers: Did you know there’s a resource for conducting language proficiency research right here on campus?
The Language Center PACE Project was designed to maintain a culture of assessment, self-assessment, and curricular improvement in the second language learning process. The cornerstone of the project was three years of proficiency testing of over 2000 university language students of Arabic, French, German, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
The available data includes:
- ACTFL proficiency ratings: Speaking, Listening, Reading
- Self assessments: Speaking, Listening, Reading
- Academics: Major/minor, year in school, language course history
- Background: Language experience, home environment, study abroad, purpose for learning, language usage and much more!
Examples of research questions that have been explored using PACE Project data include:
- Is there a correlation between duration of high school study of Spanish and speaking proficiency levels of students in a 6th semester postsecondary Spanish course?
- How does a study abroad experience affect university students’ French listening proficiency? Speaking proficiency?
To find out more about using PACE data to conduct research through the Language Center, please visit our Research & Funding Opportunities page. If you would like to discuss your research project, please contact Kate Paesani at kpaesani@umn.edu, chair of the LC Research Advisory Committee.
The PACE Project was funded by a grant from The Language Flagship.
