Chapeau! is a first-year college text. Although it may appear, at first glance, to move very fast and introduce a large amount of material early, the vocabulary and grammatical structures that we expect students to control actively by the end of the year are limited in accord with our notion of a reasonable application of the ACTFL proficiency guidelines. As a result, while some instructors may be surprised at such things as the absence of the possessive pronoun, no insistence on the use of optional subjunctives, and no active treatment of the relative dont, others may be disturbed by what we still include in a first-year text. What we do expect students to acquire (which is quantitatively less than what we present in the text for them to know about), we believe they will acquire well, providing a sound basis for further study (formal or informal) and permitting us to say to them, both during and at the end of the course, "Chapeau!"

Research shows that engaging students in self-assessment positively impacts language learning, motivation, and learner autonomy. To help World Language Educators accomplish this, the Nebraska Department of Education invited experienced world language teachers across the state to create student-friendly assessments in the form of can-do statements in the summer of 2022. This document is a student-friendly self-assessment activity for Intermediate Mid world language learners created based on the 2019 Nebraska World Language Standards. The language use described in all can-do statements is meant for the target language, except for the second for standard 3.1 and the first for standard 4.2. It is recommended that word language teachers engage students with this document three times in an academic year: pre-course, mid-course, and post-course. Engaging students with this self-assessment activity will help students see growth over time and hopefully attribute growth to effective learning practices. Please feel free to contact chrystal.liu@nebraska.gov for any questions and concerns.