How long, exactly, do students need to reach Novice-High proficiency? Are some languages really easier to learn than others? And how proficient should high school students be after studying for four years?

Language teaching is as much an art as it is a science. Effective educators excel at the art of language teaching, and we at CASLS understand the science behind second language acquisition research. With help from practicing teachers, we have identified the top ten burning questions of those who matter the most: language teachers themselves. CASLS will lead a team of researchers to investigate these questions and then publish the results in a variety of formats. When available, this page will provide answers to the above questions and more.

• What proficiency level does the typical student in a high school program achieve? » Answer
• Are some languages easier to learn than others?
• How many hours of instruction does it take to reach Intermediate-High proficiency?
• What motivates learners to study foreign languages?
• How does early language learning affect proficiency outcomes?

The U.S. Department of Education Title VI program sponsors this research. Partnering institutions at the Center for Language Education and Research at Michigan State University, the National Foreign Language Resource Center at the University of Hawaii, and the Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition (CARLA) at the University of Minnesota will assist CASLS and the UO Department of Linguistics in completing the research for these educator-initiated questions.