Grammar for non-native speakers continues to be a major issue.  For the native speakers, the diacritical markings tend to be lacking in their writing. Thus, we have to stress more intensively grammar rules and diacritical markings. We have a faculty member slated to be trained as an OPI evaluator in November.  That should lessen the load for faculty. We are hoping that electronic portfolios will lesson the problem of standardizing the assignments submitted for the portfolio.  We also need to standardize our response when first drafts are submitted rather than the final product.

We are consistently having all graduating Spanish majors complete the capstone presentation, the OPI evaluation, the portfolio and the questionniare every semester, with at least the minimum three faculty participants, usually more, and using the ACTFL national standards for evaluation across students. Unfortunately, these are frequently done at the last minute to the inconvenience of the faculty due to students waiting until the last minute of their last semester to complete the requirements. We have now established one date per semester for the capstones. Part of the problem is that students do no declare their graduation plans until the last minute. We may need to consult with students regarding how to remedy these failings.

We have now facilitated the training of two faculty members to be OPI evaluators. The electronic portfolio submission is still a work in progress, as the majority of our students do not seem to retain their associated work, especially in electronic form; nor do the majority of professors who teach such courses grade "on-line," which would facilitate accessing the work and submitting it electronically.

All graduating Spanish majors are doing a capstone presentation, an OPI evaluation, the portfolio and questionnaire every semester and we always have at least three faculty participants in the capstone, all using the ACTFL standards. We continue to have one date for capstones, although the number of graduating majors has become somewhat unwieldly for same. We continue to have the problem of last minute declarations and students who swear they have never heard of the requirements (plus what appears to be some lack of knowledge/resistance on the part of advisors outside FOL. 

We will need to standarize electronic collection of common portfolio materials over the potential four years of any given student's courses with FOL at SHSU, perhaps by faculty submission of final exams in the grammar and composition course and final research papers in other advanced classes.