The Challenge of Teaching Language Proficiency
Teaching is both an art and a science—especially when the goal is to guide language learners toward mastery. Language educators must navigate the intricate terrain of proficiency development, often with limited tools to distinguish one stage from the next. For many, the lines between novice, intermediate, and advanced can be blurry, making it difficult to design lessons, track growth, and set meaningful goals.
One teacher’s journey through the Avant ADVANCE teacher training program illustrates how targeted professional learning can turn that uncertainty into empowered, precise, and effective instruction.
Before: Uncertainty in the Classroom
Before engaging with Avant ADVANCE, I encountered a challenge all too familiar to my peers: I often felt unsure about what separated one language level from the next.
What made a composition at the “Simple Sentences” level different from a composition at the “Strings of Sentences” level? I wondered what made writing “stringy.” What made something “Pre-Paragraph” discourse versus “Paragraph” discourse? Again, I thought I knew what paragraphs looked like, but I started second-guessing myself.
How could I teach to these goals if I wasn’t sure myself what they were supposed to look like? Without clear benchmarks, lesson planning and rubric creation were a guessing game, and setting appropriate expectations for students felt like navigating in the dark. I often turned to teacher groups on social media to see how others might rate different writing samples and gain some clarity for myself, but ended up feeling more lost than before. Different teachers could describe the same writing sample as either Novice-Mid or Intermediate-Low. And we had all read the same guidelines, and were often looking at the same provided rubric!
The absence of clear proficiency markers made it difficult to tailor instruction or assess progress with confidence. Additionally, it made it hard to have conversations with fellow professionals about realistic expectations. It felt like we were all speaking different languages!
A Shift in Clarity: Learning with Avant ADVANCE
Enrolling in Avant ADVANCE in 2019 was a turning point. The program introduced me to the defining characteristics of each proficiency level, from Novice to Advanced, as well as each of the sublevels. I gained a structured understanding of language development stages—not as abstract categories, but as living, teachable progressions rooted in real-world classroom communication. And I finally learned concrete, specific definitions for the nebulous terms that had befuddled me before!
This clarity transformed how I viewed my role as a teacher. Proficiency levels were no longer vague milestones that I simply wished my students towards—they became the blueprint for intentional, responsive teaching that would guide my learners along the path to proficiency in the language.
Turning Knowledge into Strategy: Lesson Planning Reinvented
With a deepened understanding of language proficiency, my lesson planning changed dramatically. I began designing lessons that directly targeted the “look-fors” that characterized the next level for my students. Whether it was vocabulary depth, syntactic complexity, or discourse cohesion, every instructional decision coalesced behind my newfound knowledge of how to push students forward in their proficiency.
I began circling in “Added Details” more consciously into class discussions so that students could cross the bridge from Novice to Intermediate-Low. I hung up magnetized conjunctions on my whiteboard to model Connected Sentences in our writing. I created a “Grammar Corner” for students who were interested in increasing their language control to push their Intermediate proficiency and referenced it with language in context to help students get the most from it.
What’s even better is that once I started making these changes, students at all levels profited. Complete beginners in my level 1 classes started trying to connect sentences together like Intermediates. Writing became more detailed across the board. Finally, students were achieving some “flow” in their production, and compositions became more exciting to read as students became more skilled.
My lessons were more focused, more engaging, and more attuned to my students’ actual needs. Instruction was no longer one-size-fits-all—it was laser-focused and strategically designed. And it was working!
Precision in Practice: Monitoring and Supporting Student Growth
This newfound clarity also changed how I evaluated student work. I finetuned my Presentational Communication rubrics so that they actually (finally) made sense to me and my students. I could now observe the nuances in sentence structure and vocabulary that signaled growth—or areas where a student was still developing. Rather than relying on intuition alone, or the mixed messages I had received from others, I had a reliable, concrete framework to interpret student performance, and a way of communicating that to students in kid-friendly language.
I was even able to teach students about what each proficiency sublevel looked like so that they, too, could speak the language of proficiency. I remember being floored by a student who proudly stated, “I want to be solidly Intermediate-Low this year,” and the excitement of letting him know later in the school year that he might actually be ready for my Intermediate-Mid rubric if he wanted it. (He did!)
I was able to give all my students more specific feedback and set realistic, attainable goals for every learner. Students responded with increased confidence, knowing exactly what success looked like.
From Confidence to Impact: The Transformational Power of Training
Avant ADVANCE didn’t just sharpen my teaching—it reignited my sense of purpose. I became more confident in my ability to support every student, regardless of their starting point. I knew what to look for, how to respond, and when to push or support.
The impact on my students was profound. With clearly defined goals and more responsive instruction, they began progressing more quickly and participating more actively in their learning journey. My experience with Avant ADVANCE truly helped me level up as a teacher.
About the Author: Ben Fisher-Rodriguez is a high school German and Spanish teacher located in Seattle, WA. He has presented at national, regional, and local conferences on lesson planning, high-leverage teaching strategies, and issues of LGBTQ+ inclusion. Ben is a 2022 German Embassy Teacher of Excellence, the WAFLT TOY for 2022, the PNCFL TOY for 2023, and a 2024 NEA Foundation Teacher of Excellence. He blogs at Mr. Fisher Says… , is on Bluesky @mrfishersays, and is a co-host of the language teaching podcast “SLAyyy: Second Language Acquisition for Everyone.”
Why Proficiency Training Matters
This teacher’s story is just one example of how the right training can elevate not only instructional quality but also student outcomes. Avant ADVANCE equips educators with the tools to be more intentional, more effective, and ultimately, more inspiring.
Teaching language is complex. Avant ADVANCE makes it clearer.
Want to empower your teaching with a deeper understanding of proficiency? Learn more about how Avant ADVANCE can support your growth—and your students’ success.
