Assessing Quechua by its own standards

In 2019, Quechua was the first American Indigenous language to be added to the group of languages certified for evaluation via the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). At present, Quechua remains the only American Indigenous language of the 146 languages/dialects currently available for the OPI, which is a proficiency-based assessment that evaluates speakers’ spontaneous ability to use a target language. Within this chapter, the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2024 – Speaking that inform the OPI are examined as they apply to Quechua and some suggestions are provided for adaptation such that these guidelines may be more appropriate, representative, and applicable. While ACTFL’s current standards and guidelines for each proficiency level and sublevel may serve many of the world’s languages well, in the case of Quechua and also for other less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) and Indigenous languages, changes are needed to more accurately describe both language-specific and culture-specific priorities and standards for producing high-level discourse.