PACE Project Summer Research Opportunities

Graduate students, language instructors, and other researchers: Are you looking for a summer research project related to language proficiency?

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?

Those are only two examples of research questions that can be explored using PACE data--we have only scratched the surface!  

Do you have a research question to explore? To propose a research project, please start with the Research Project Form.

To find out more about research at the Language Center, please visit the Research & Funding Opportunities page of the Language Center website. 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.