ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) is an organization aiming to improve and expand the teaching and learning of all languages at all levels of instruction. ACTFL is an individual membership organization of more than 13,000 language educators and administrators from elementary through graduate education, as well as in government and industry. Founded in 1967 as a small offshoot of the Modern Language Association (MLA), ACTFL quickly became both a resource and a haven for language educators. Since then, the organization has set industry standards, established proficiency guidelines, advocated for language education funding, and connected colleagues at the ACTFL Annual Convention. ACTFL language proficiency guidelines The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines provide a means of assessing the proficiency of a foreign language speaker. It is widely used in schools and universities in the United States and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview is the most widely used oral proficiency test in North America. The guidelines are broken up into different proficiency levels: novice – subdivided into low (NL), mid (NM), and high (NH) intermediate – subdivided into low (IL), mid (IM), and high (IH) advanced – subdivided into low (AL), mid (AM), and high (AH) superior (S) distinguished (D) These proficiency levels are defined separately for ability to listen, speak, read and write. Thus, in those American programs that emphasize written language over spoken, students may reach the advanced level in reading and writing while remaining at a lower level in listening and speaking. The ACTFL Performance Descriptors are defined in three different subsets of communications skills with their own more generalized grading scales in terms of domains, functions, contexts/ content, text type, language control, vocabulary, communication strategies, cultural awareness in all of the following modes of communication: Interpersonal (Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced) Interpretative (Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced) Presentational (Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced) Presidents 2022: Victoria Russell 2021: Jessica Haxhi 2020: Bridget Yaden 2019: Lisa Ritter 2018: Aleidine Moeller 2017: Desa Dawson 2016: Pete Swanson 2015: Jacque Bott van Houten 2014: Mary Lynn Redmond 2013: Toni Theisen 2012: David McAlpine 2011: Barbara Mondloch 2010: Eileen Glisan, Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2009: Janine Erickson 2008: Ray T. Clifford 2007: Rita A. Oleksak 2006: Paul Sandrock 2005: Audrey L. Heining-Boynton 2004: Thomas Keith Cothrun 2003: Martha G. Abbott 2002: Christine L. Brown 2001: Paul A. Garcia 1999: Emily Spinelli 1998: Elizabeth Hoffman 1997: Ann Tollefson 1996: Valorie S. Babb 1995: Kathleen M.