Organization

ACTFL is the nation's premier organization for language teaching professionals, providing vision, leadership and support for quality language teaching and testing, as well as providing support to those who instruct and assess languages. Established in 1967, ACTFL currently has a worldwide membership of more than 12,000 language educators and administrators representing all languages at all levels of instruction. In addition to offering services typical of those offered by professional associations, ACTFL has undertaken numerous projects of national scope that have had significant impact on foreign language education. Earlier projects focused on: the creation of a national metric for describing language competence - The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines; the development of the Oral Proficiency Interview procedure; and, the development and administration of national proficiency testing and tester training programs.Subsequent national efforts have produced the World Readiness Standards for Learning Languages, the ACTFL Performance Descriptors for Language Learners, and the NCSSFL - ACTFL Can-Do Statements. ACTFL proficiency testing is used for academic, commercial, and government purposes that include: entrance, placement and graduation requirements; research initiatives; program evaluation; hiring and promotion decisions; credentialing of teachers and other language professionals; and other situations where an individual's language proficiency needs to be documented. Language Testing International, the ACTFL Testing Office, currently schedules, administers, and reports proficiency ratings for 1M proficiency tests each year.