Structure of the World Language Standards

The overall structure of Nebraska’s World Language Standards reflects the two-tier structure common across all Nebraska content area standards. The two levels include standards and indicators. Standards include broad, overarching content-based statements that describe the basic cognitive, affective, or psychomotor expectations of student learning. The standards are sorted by strands, which are essential components to world language learning. Indicators further describe what students must know and be able to do to at a specific level of language learning to meet the standard and provide guidance related to classroom instruction.

Each standard is labeled with “WL” to denote World Language. Following “WL”, a single digit number indicates the strand. The strands are:

1 Communication
2 Culture
3 Connections
4 Communities
5 Cognition

Following the strand number, a single digit number indicates the standard. A letter, A-I, indicates the performance level. They are:

a. Novice Low
b. Novice Mid
c. Novice High
d. Intermediate Low
e. Intermediate Mid
f. Intermediate High
g. Advanced Low
h. Advanced Mid
i. Advanced High

The following is an example of how to read the World Language Standards.

Strand: Students communicate effectively in a variety of situations for multiple purposes.

Standard: Students exchange information through interaction and negotiation of meaning.

Indicator: Participate in basic exchanges with isolated, high-frequency words, fragmented responses, or phrases.