Ray Clifford
Dr. Clifford has published numerous articles on teacher development, language proficiency assessment, curriculum design, computer assisted instruction, and educational program administration. The total number of speeches and workshops he has given on language-related topics exceeds three hundred. Most of these presentations have been to national, regional, and state teacher organizations, while others have been to groups as diverse as the Senate Subcommittee on Education, Arts, and Humanities; the National Commission on Excellence in Education; and the U.S. Department of Education, National Advisory Board for International Programs.
Recent Publications (2012-Present)
“Testing and Transformative Language Learning”, pp 227-237 in Transformative Language Learning and Teaching, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. 2021.
“A Rational for Criterion-Referenced Proficiency Testing”, Foreign Language Annals. Vol. 49, No. 2, 2016.
“L1, L2, and Cognitive Development: Exploring Relationships” with Dan Dewey and Troy Cox, pp 23-41 in To Advanced Proficiency and Beyond: Theory and Methods for Developing Superior Second-Language Ability. Georgetown University Press, Georgetown, VA, 2015.
“Empirical Validation of Listening Proficiency Guidelines”, with Troy Cox, Foreign Language Annals. Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 379-403. 2014.
“Empirical Validation of Reading Proficiency Guidelines”, with Troy Cox, Foreign Language Annals. Vol. 46, No. 1, pp. 45-61. 2013.
“It is Easier to Malign Tests than It is to Align Tests”, pp 49-56 in Aligning Frameworks of Reference in Language Testing, Erwin Tschirner, editor. Stauffenburg Verlag. Tübingen, Germany, 2012.
“Missionary Oral Proficiency: How much do they learn?”, with Dan Dewey in Language Acquisition Abroad: The LDS missionary experience, Lynne Hansen, editor. John Benjamins. Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2012.
“Employment Trends and Opportunities for Language Graduates,” with R. Marks and C. Walsh, a virtual presentation to the ACTFL Convention, Washington, DC. 20-22 November 2020.
“Online Language Courses and 5 Laws of Language Learning,” keynote address to the NATO BILC Professional Seminar, 19 October 2020, hosted by Lisbon, Portugal, attended by participants from 35 nations.
“Language Learning and Teaching: some axioms and their corollaries,” keynote address to the Language Learning and Teaching Conference, Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Institute, Monterey, CA. 23 September 2020.
“Language Teaching and Testing: Dealing with Conflicting Cultures,” keynote address to the NATO STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop, hosted by Romania, attended by participants from 34 nations. 8 September 2020.
“Our Recent Experience with Online Language Courses<’ invited presentation to the NATO BILC Steering Committee members hosted by Slovenia, attended by participants from 28 nations. 27 May 2020.
“What do Teachers of LCTLs have in Common with Teachers of MCTLs?” keynote address to ACTFL LCTL SIG, ACTFL Conference, Washington, DC. 22 November 2019.
“Assigning Grades to Students: An Introduction”, ACTFL Conference, Washington, DC. 22 November 2019.
“The Phenomenon of Shrinking Learning Outcomes: And it negative impact on proficiency oriented instruction”, NATO BILC Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark. 9 October 2019.
“BAT2: An Overview: What has happened since 2003”, NATO Testing Workshop, Tours, France. September 2019.
“Test Validation for People with (Proficiency) Standards”, Interagency Language Roundtable, Foreign Service Institute, Fairfax, VA. 15 February 2019.
“Assigning Grades to Students: Do your Grading Practices Make the Grade”, ACTFL Conference, New Orleans, LA. 16 November 2018.
"Teaching, Learning, and Testing: Two Paths to Congruence”, Scandinavian Conference, Provo, UT. 19 October 2018.
“Teaching, Learning, and Testing: Finding Congruence”, NATO BILC Professional Seminar, Zagreb, Croatia. 16 October 2018.
“Basic Statistics for Non-Mathematicians”, NATO STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. 4 September 2018.
“Developing Valid STANAG 6001 Proficiency Tests: Reading and Listening”, Keynote address, NATO STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. 4 September 2018.
“Mission Impossible? Converting Proficiency Levels into Can Do Statements”, ACTFL Conference, Nashville, TN. 17 November 2017.
“Principles of Language Assessment”, Chinese Flagship Teacher Training Workshop. BYU, Provo, Utah. 19 June 2017.
“How Accurate Are Self-Assessments of Second Language Proficiency?” NATO BILC Conference, Vienna, Austria16 May 2017.
“Language Difficulty, Language Learning, and Language Testing”, 300th MI Language Conference, Draper Utah. 4 March 2017.
“Will that be on the test?”, JNCL, Washington, DC. 16 February 2017.
“Language Difficulty Categories: Retrospect and Prospect” with Pardee Lowe, ACTFL, Boston, MA. 18 November 2016.
“Constructing Authentic Language Proficiency Tests”, NATO BILC Professional Seminar, Budapest, Hungary. 26 October 2016.
“Developing STANAG 6001 Language Proficiency Tests with Less Inference and More Evidence”, NATO BILC Testing Seminar, Brno, Czech Republic. 6 September 2016.
“What kind of reading is L4 reading, and how is it rated?” Keynote presentation at BILC L4 Research Group, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. 5 March 2016.
“The Language Certificate: Encouraging Foreign Language Proficiency for All University Students”, JNCL, Washington, DC. 26 February 2016.
“Incompetence and Naïveté”, JNCL, Washington, DC. 25 February 2016. - “Defining and Testing Proficient Reading”, Workshop at the ACTFL
Conference, San Diego, CA. 19 November 2015.
“Different approaches to language testing: Curriculum-based vs curriculum-independent assessments”, NATO BILC, Madrid, Spain. 7 May 2015.
“Proficiency and Performance: Two necessary but not Sufficient Conditions”, Symposium on Global Professional Competence, Brigham Young University. 13 October 2015.
“Authentic Assessments Are Aligned Assessments”, BILC Testing Workshop, Vilnius, Lithuania. 9 September 2015.
“Keeping Authentic Texts Genuine”, BILC Testing Workshop, Vilnius, Lithuania. 8 September 2015.
“Are You Fluent in a Second Language?”, Education Week, Brigham Young University. 18 August 2015.
“Testing Receptive Skills”, Workshop at ACTFL Conference, San Diego, CA. ACTFL 2015.
“What Shirts, Hurdles, and Tunnels Teach us about Computer Adaptive Tests”, with Troy Cox, NATO BILC Professional Seminar, Ellwangen, Germany. 16 October 2014.
“Only a Centerboard of LL Expertise can Keep the Flagships from Capsizing”, Flagship Directors Meeting, Huntington Beach, CA. 23 May 2014.
“The Jointly-Developed English BAT as a Multi-Stage, Computer Adaptive Test”, NATO BILC, Bruge, Belgium. 6 May 2014.
“Constructing Elicited Oral Response Items for an English Speaking Proficiency Screening Test” with Troy Cox, American Association for Applied Linguistics, Portland, OR. 22 March 2014.
“Criterion-Referenced, Multistage, Computer-Adaptive, Reading and Listening Proficiency Tests with Floor and Ceiling Ratings”, ILR Testing Committee, Foreign Service Institute, Falls Church, VA. 24 January 2014.
“Using Performance Grids for Curriculum Design Decisions”, ILR Testing Committee, Foreign Service Institute, Falls Church, VA. 13 December 2013.
“Defining and Testing Listening Proficiency” with Troy Cox, ACTFL Convention, Orlando, FL. 22 November 2013.
“Constructing elicited oral response items for an English speaking proficiency screening test”, with Troy Cox, ECOLT, Georgetown University, Georgetown, VA. 25 October 2013.
“Defining and Testing Chinese Reading Proficiency”, Chinese Language Educators Forum, San Francisco, CA. 19 October 2013.
“Conclusion or Commencement”, 2013 ACTFL-CEFR Symposium, Alexandria, VA. 14 June 2013.
“The Future of Language Assessment”, SWALLT Annual Conference, Provo, UT. 9 March 2013.
“The Impact of the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines”, the 30th Anniversary of the ACTFL OPI, ACTFL Convention, Philadelphia, PA. 17 November 2012.
“Defining and Testing Proficient Reading”, with Troy Cox, ACTFL Convention, Philadelphia, PA. 16 November 2012.
“Form Following Function: The Evolution of the Center for Language Studies at Brigham Young University”, Language Center Conference, Yale University, New Haven, CT. 10 November 2012.
“Empirical Validation of Reading Proficiency Scales”, ECOLT, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. 3 November 2012.
“Empirical Validation of Reading Proficiency Scales: Chinese”, Flagship Results 2012 Conference, New York, NY. 27 October 2012.
“Why Test is a Four-Letter Word: The Need for Both Curriculum-Dependent and Real-Life-Based Tests”, XIII Seminar for Administrators of Programs for International Educational Cooperation and VIII Seminar of Principals of International Spanish Academies, Park City, UT. 22 October 2012.
“The AG® Competency Exam: An Overview”, ICAPGen Annual Conference, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT. 19 October 2012.
“Why Test is a Four-Letter Word: The Need for Both Curriculum-Dependent and Real-Life-Based Tests”, Flagship – Chinese Acquisition Pipeline Consortium, Utah State Office of Education, Park City, UT. 8 Jun 2012.
“The Validation of Criterion-Referenced Language Proficiency Tests.” A two- day seminar sponsored by the NATO Bureau for International Language Coordination. Garmisch, Germany. 4-5 Jun 2012.
Other Selected Publications (Prior to 2012)
“Applications of Technology to Language Acquisition Processes: What Can Work and Why”, with Neil Granoien, pp. 25-43 in The Path of Speech Technologies in Computer Assisted Language Learning: From Research Toward Practice, M.V. Holland and F.P. Fisher, editors. Routledge Language Learning. London, 2008.
“A New Era for Second Language Research”, President’s Message in Foreign Language Annals, Winter 2008. Vol. 41, No. 4, p. 581.
“Improving a Good Thing”, President’s Message in Foreign Language Annals, Fall 2008. Vol. 41, No. 3, p. 389.
“Our Biggest Challenge”, President’s Message in Foreign Language Annals, Summer 2008. Vol. 41, No. 2, p. 197.
“What is ‘Good’ Teaching?”, President’s Message in Foreign Language Annals, Spring 2008. Vol. 41, No. 1, p. 5.
“Are Language Educators Professionals?” President’s Message in The Language Educator, November 2008. Volume 3, Issue 6, p. 7.
- “What Does It Mean to Learn a Language”, President’s Message in The Language Educator, October 2008. Volume 3, Issue 5, p. 7.
“Meeting our Professional Responsibilities”, President’s Message in The Language Educator, August 2008. Volume 3, Issue 4, p. 7.
“Will Computers Make Language Learning Unnecessary?”, President’s Message in The Language Educator, April 2008. Volume 3, Issue 3, p. 7.
“Assessment Literacy is Crucial Issue for Language Educators”, President’s Message in The Language Educator, February 2008, Volume 3, Issue 2, p. 7.
“A New Year and Some New Attitudes Toward Language Learning”, President’s Message in The Language Educator, January 2008. Volume 3, Issue 1, p.7.
“Are We There Yet?” Journal of National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages. Vol 4, Spring 2007.
Guest Editor of the special volume on OPI language proficiency testing, Foreign Language Annals, December, 2003.
Review of Sequenzen und Konsequenzen: Zur Entwicklung niederlaendischer Lerner im Deutschen als Fremdsprache in the Modern Language Journal. Vol 86, 2002.
“Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall: Reflections on Computer Assisted Language Learning”, CALICO Journal, Vol. 16, No. 1, 1998.
“Reinventing Second Language Instruction”, in Foreign Language Learning: The Journey of a Lifetime. Richard D. Donato and Robert M. Terry, editors. National Textbook Company, Lincolnwood, IL, 1995.
“Proficiency and Performance in Language Testing”, with James Child and Pardee Lowe, Jr. in Applied Language Learning. Vol. 4, 1993.
“Technological, Methodological, and Assessment Challenges: Can the Foreign Language Teacher Survive?" in Language Teaching, Testing, and Technology: Lessons from the Past with a View Toward the Future. Jim E. Alatis, editor. Georgetown University Press, Washington D.C., 1989.
“Measures of Academic Success: Better, Faster, Cheaper” in Accreditation Notes. Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges, Western Association of Schools and Colleges, Aptos, CA, Spring, 1989.
“What You Test is What You Get: Open Versus Closed Instructional Systems”, Die Unterrichtspraxis. American Association of Teachers of German, Vol. 21, No. 1. Spring, 1988.
“Language Teaching in the Federal Government: A Personal Perspective”, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Richard D. Lambert, editor. Sage, Beverly Hills, CA. 1987.
“The Push Toward Communication”, with Theodore V. Higgs in Curriculum, Competence and the Foreign Language Teacher. Theodore V. Higgs, editor. National Textbook Co., Skokie, IL, 1982.
“Convergent and Discriminant Validation of Integrated and Unitary Language Skills: The Need for a Research Model” in The Construct Validation of Tests of Communicative Competence (pp. 62-70 ). Adrian Palmer, Peter Groot, and G.A. Trosper eds. Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Washington, DC, 1981.