Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment
... Council of Europe, 2001) as a central European language policy document. The CEFR with its action-oriented approach to communicative competence has thereafter become a largely influential document of reference for the development of L2 teaching and learning curricula, language assessments, or teaching materials. ...
... In the Swiss educational context, and in alignment with this shift away from the native-speakerideal, the minimum standards for Swiss language teachers are not defined by a reference to the native speaker (Egli Cuenat, 2014;Loder-Büchel, 2014). With the public discussion generally orientating itself on the CEFR levels (Council of Europe, 2001), primary and secondary school language teachers are generally expected to attain a CEFR level C1 and C2 in the target language, respectively (EDK, 2017). There are, however, no unified and official standards in Switzerland, and practices are highly heterogeneous across cantons and institutions (Bleichenbacher et al., 2019). ...
... The original traces of this approach remain prominent until today. For example, the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001) maintains that competences can never be tested directly: ...
Multitudes of factors influence a language learners’ success in acquiring an additional language in school. One of those constitutes L2 teachers’ language competences in the target language they intend to teach (Vicente, 2012). In addition to high general L2 proficiency, specific, profession-related language competences are receiving increasing interest. For instance, recent theoretical considerations and empirical research suggest that teacher language competence is distinct from general language competence (Cullen, 1998). Indeed, high general and academic language proficiency do not seem to suffice to ensure effective, action-oriented and target-audience appropriate teaching (Bleichenbacher et al., 2017; Bleichenbacher et al., 2014; Burke, 2015; Elder, 2001; Legutke, 2012; Loder-Büchel, 2014). With the rise of competence- and standard-orientation in education, an increasing focus is placed on needs-oriented approaches to identify what L2 teacher language competences are actually required in the real-world classroom. One such needs- and action-oriented attempt constitutes the development of the profession-related language competence profiles (PRLCP) and the corresponding analytical profession-related language competence assessment rubric (PRLC-R) (Kuster et al., 2014). They were devised within a nation-wide Swiss development project and describe the specific language requirements for L2 teachers according to a range of profession-specific communicative skills such as preparing and conducting lessons or assessing, giving feedback and advising (ibid.). The latter constitutes a central component of fostering learners’ L2 skills and is considered a particularly typical, profession-related skill for (L2) teachers (Bleichenbacher et al., 2014). Acquiring the linguistic means of being able to engage in effective L2 feedback practice thus seems of particular relevance for L2 teachers. According to socio-constructivist approaches to L2 education, in which feedback is conceptualised as a multidirectional, collaborative and iterative process, both the feedback provider and recipient take on mutual responsibilities for co-constructing meaning and thus for contributing to successful, dialogic feedback conversations (Carless, 2020a; Carless & Boud, 2018). Accordingly, high language proficiency – particularly of the L2 teacher – are especially relevant to ensure successful reciprocal feedback. Examining how feedback-related teacher language competences can be fostered thus seems to be a necessary step when it comes to exploring the PRLCP in context. So far, very little accompanying empirical research has been conducted to determine practicality, usability, impact and effectiveness of the PRLCP and PRLC-R in practice. This dissertation examines the practical implementation and systemic relevance of both instruments in two partial studies. By means of a quasi-experimental intervention study of pre-post experimental-control design, partial study 1 investigates how qualitative, language-specific aspects of pre-service English teachers’ oral feedbacks provided to lower secondary school students develop under the administration of the PRLC-R in combination with systematic feedback training. The treatment involves the experimental group providing regular feedback on their peers’ microteachings based on the PRLC-R including linguistic and indigenous criteria (e.g., addressee-specificity). The control group identify their own assessment criteria for providing peer feedback. To measure the 48 participating pre-service teachers’ oral, profession-related feedback competences in English, an online competence-oriented performance test is used. The pre- and post-tests are based on the PRLCP as the test construct and contain vignette-based test tasks to simulate the target language use domain and elicit relevant oral language performances. The audio-recorded task responses are judged against the PRLC-R criteria by four expert raters. Partial study 2 seeks to answer the overarching research question of how lower secondary school students (i.e. “field experts”) perceive and evaluate the linguistic quality and comprehensibility of pre-service English teachers’ oral feedbacks. The aim of this sub-study is to explore the perceptions of the end users as stakeholders. The learner judgements are captured through semi-structured, guided interviews. Connections to the PRLCP and the corresponding expert ratings are drawn. Results of the interrater reliability calculations and rater analyses of partial study 1 show that interrater reliability could not be achieved. In addition, the Multifaceted Rasch Analysis (MFRA) indicates noticeable rater and interaction effects and severe differential rater functioning, suggesting that the PRLC-R criteria are not distinct and reliably applicable throughout. In addition, despite correcting the rater biases and variability through an MFRA, the pre-post analyses show that no treatment effects can be observed in the experimental group. The control group’s measured oral, profession-related feedback competences increased by a small, albeit non-significant amount. Findings from partial study 2 indicate that the indigenous criterion addressee-specificity may constitute its own independent construct. The insights gained through the intervention study and qualitative interviews serve to identify the potential affordances of the PRLCP. The findings also aid to recognise areas for further development of the PRLCP, PRLC-R and the indigenous criterion addressee-specificity. Implications on the construct of teacher language competence and L2 teacher education are drawn, didactic, methodological and theoretical considerations are presented, avenues for further research are outlined and the need for more accompanying empirical research in development projects are discussed.
... The studies were mainly from Spain [16,36,38,39] and other European countries [40][41][42], while the rest covered Asia [17], Africa [15], South America [43], and Oceania [44]. The most common are studies of English teaching and learning in those that report it, which indicate that the participants' FL proficiency level is below B2 in the Common European Framework of References for Languages [45]. In terms of video characteristics, short videos are mostly derived from the re-editing of existing resources and are kept under 5 minutes. ...
... The studies were mainly from Spain [16,36,38,39] and other European countries [40][41][42], while the rest covered Asia [17], Africa [15], South America [43], and Oceania [44]. The most common are studies of English teaching and learning in those that report it, which indicate that the participants' FL proficiency level is below B2 in the Common European Framework of References for Languages [45]. In terms of video characteristics, short videos are mostly derived from the re-editing of existing resources and are kept under 5 min. ...
This literature review focuses on the use of short videos for foreign language (FL) teaching and learning from 2013 to 2022, a research area that has been attracting growing attention. The results were classified according to three categories based on the scope of the short videos in research: (1) short videos as a medium, (2) short videos as an intervention, and (3) short videos as the central focus of studies. Such a categorization enabled us to determine that short videos have become an independent research term in the field of FL teaching and learning and to describe current trends in this field. The intrinsic characteristics of short videos in current educational and multimedia environments are discussed, namely, the reasons why short videos are used in the classroom, as well as the potential of short videos as a learning resource created by young students and as an open educational resource (OER). Finally, we consider the differences between short videos and traditional audiovisual resources to highlight their innovative contributions to FL teaching and learning.
... The council of Europe argues that IC ought to be prioritized in foreign language education (17) . This can prepare learners for "interaction with people of other cultural backgrounds, teaching them skills and attitudes as well as knowledge" (18) . ...
... Thus, the five main constructs of IE, message skills, interaction management, behavioral flexibility, identity management and relationship cultivation are represented in the measurement instrument. The six factors constructing the IE scale are Message Skills (items 6,10,12), Behavioral Flexibility items (2,4,14,18), Interaction Relaxation (items 1, 3,11,13,19), Interactant Respect (items 9,15,20), Identity Maintenance (items 8,16,17), and Interaction Management (items 5,7) (46). ...
... Unlike A2 learners who can use expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance, A1 learners can use similar expressions only with rudimentary phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. In conclusion, for each level, the CEFR describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in reading, listening, speaking, and writing [28]. A more thorough description of each level, with criteria for the four skills, is reported in the handbook published by the Council of Europe [28]. ...
... In conclusion, for each level, the CEFR describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in reading, listening, speaking, and writing [28]. A more thorough description of each level, with criteria for the four skills, is reported in the handbook published by the Council of Europe [28]. ...
In higher education in Taiwan, mandatory general English courses like Freshman English adopt ability-grouping practices to assign students to classes of different proficiency levels. However, little research has explored the efficacy of ability-grouping criteria and standardized the language-proficiency description for general English courses of different proficiency levels. Thus, this study recruited 806 Taiwanese undergraduates from Freshman English classes of advanced, intermediate, and basic proficiency levels to take the Oxford Online Placement Test (OOPT), and compared their scores on the Joint College Entrance Examination English subject (namely the General Scholastic Ability Test, GSAT) with OOPT. The findings indicated that the ability-grouping criterion was effective to classify students into three groups of different proficiency levels. A positive relationship between the GSAT and OOPT scores was identified. A clear trend, but with some overlapping correspondence, was displayed between the class levels and Common European Framework of Reference levels derived from the OOPT scoring report. Pedagogical implications and suggestions for future studies are provided.
... It should also be noted that multilingualism does not necessarily involve understanding that one must master several languages at the same level. A multilingual is someone who has, compared to his or her mother tongue, more or less reduced knowledge (or partial competence, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) [50,51] of two or more languages in the same or different registers of competence (e.g., to ensure oral or written contacts for reading and to carry out professional interactions) [52]. ...
... Almost all of them (91.2%) have studied a first foreign language, generally English, throughout their preuniversity education, and 43.8% of the respondents have chosen French as their second foreign language. Only 30.5% of them have a B1 level certification of their first foreign language according to the CEFR [50]. ...
From the perspective of neuroscience applied to education and the teaching of foreign languages, this exploratory study analyzes the beliefs and conceptions about the functioning of the brain and language learning in students enrolled in Education degrees at the Melilla campus of the University of Granada. The sample consisted of 397 participants. The data collection was carried out by means of a questionnaire designed for this purpose, consisting of questions related to the context and linguistic background of the respondents and to educational neuromyths regarding language learning. The data were analyzed using the SPSS version 27 statistical software, and univariate and bivariate analyses were carried out according to the three grouping dimensions: (a) brain functioning, (b) multiple intelligences and learning styles, and (c) language learning. The results indicate the prevalence of neuromyths related to general concepts, which determine the learning comprehension. This corroborates the findings of research studies in other contexts. Although the participants do not show a prevalence of neuromyths regarding foreign language learning, presumably due to their experiences in multilingual contexts, which constitutes the main contribution of this study.
... In general, developing positive attitudes towards learning foreign languages, foreign people, and their cultures, particularly developing positive attitudes towards foreign language lessons, is one of the affective goals of foreign language teaching curricula (European Council, 2009). Encouraging students to learn a foreign language and eliminating negative feelings such as foreign language anxiety, and enabling the student to feel safe and comfortable with learning a foreign language or communicating in a foreign language can also be shown as affective objectives (Komorowska, 1997). ...
... Se ofrece a continuación el conjunto de ejercicios que conforma cada sección de la unidad didáctica. Las instrucciones se ofrecen en lengua inglesa porque la unidad didáctica está pensada para estudiantes de B2.2 / C1.2 del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (Europe, 2018). Esta unidad didáctica está diseñada para una tarea de traducción interlingüística inversa (ES>EN) en la modalidad de voces superpuestas. ...
Un mundo globalizado, cambiante e interconectado requiere ciudadanos multilingües y multiculturales que sepan manejarse en diferentes situaciones. La formación de dicha ciudadanía necesita propuestas educativas rigurosas e innovadoras que estén al servicio de las necesidades de la sociedad del siglo XXI. Teniendo en cuenta la elevada exposición a productos audiovisuales y la motivación y el interés que dichos productos suscitan es necesario explorar las diferentes posibilidades para la inclusión de los mismos en los procesos de enseñanza-aprendizaje. El análisis fílmico es una opción con un largo recurrido, y en las últimas décadas ha tenido lugar un inusitado auge de la Traducción Audiovisual Didáctica, materializado a en proyecto como PluriTAV, ClipFlair o TRADILEX. El objetivo de esta propuesta es explorar la escalabilidad de la Traducción Audiovisual Didáctica (TAD) para comprobar su compatibilidad con la producción audiovisual, los estudios fílmicos, la metodología AICLE (Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lenguas Extranjeras) y el enfoque IFSyC (Inglés con Fines Sociales y de Cooperación) para el tratamiento de contenidos transversales. Para ello se ha producido un vídeo en el seno del Proyecto I+D+i TRADILEX (La TRaducción Audiovisual como recurso DIdáctico en el aprendizaje de Lenguas EXtranjeras) (2020-2023) que ha servido como base para diseñar una unidad didáctica. Este vídeo versa sobre las desigualdades de género a lo largo de la historia y se basa en A Room of One’s Own de Virginia Woolf. A modo de conclusión, la TAD muestra una alta compatibilidad con la metodología AICLE y el enfoque IFSyC es de gran interés para trabajar contenidos transversales en el aula de lenguas extranjeras.
... "Language barriers" are indicated as one most important factor-however not unique-limiting nonnative patients' access to healthcare setting and information, hampering their chances to participate to informed health decision-making and eventually, their treatment adherence (Jacobs et al., 2003;Bruce et al., 2014;Pandey et al., 2021). Yet, as we know from studies in sociolinguistic and applied linguistic perspective (Hymes, 1972;Spolsky, 1989;Blommaert & Verschueuren, 1991, among others) and as also the Europe Council (2002) maintains, the extent to which a speaker speaks fluently or understand the grammatical and syntactical properties or the lexicon of a language does not fill her/his communicative competence (Hymes, 1972), needed to effectively participate in any given intercultural encounter. ...
Health contexts are culturally and organizational rich environments, often difficult to be navigated also by “indigenous” participants, i.e., those, who are native speakers of the context and, thus, share with the health practitioners a common ground of cultural knowledge. This chapter investigates the construction of nonnative patients’ communicative competence in oncological visits, including also a companion. Particularly, the study examines whether and how companions of patients, who are nonnative of Italian, help patients to travel communication with their Italian oncologist and particularly, what is their contribution to the accomplishment of the patient’s telling and responses in the course of the visit. Previous analyses have revealed how the oncological visit—as a complex institutional event [Drew & Heritage (Talk at work. Interaction in institutional settings. Cambridge University Press, 1992)]—requires sophisticated cultural and interactional skills from patients, in order for them to accomplish all different activities (e.g., reporting, asking questions, displaying understanding, engaging in decision making, etc) that unfold stepwise, from the beginning to the end of this event. To this task, companions, present in half of the visits, play a relevant and highly specialized role [Fatigante et al. (Frontiers in Psychology 12:664747, 2021b). The study relies on a set of data constituted by 10 videorecorded oncological visits with patients, who have an ethnic and linguistic background different from the doctor: visits include both first meetings with newly diagnosed patients and follow up visits, and they were collected in three different hospitals of Rome. The chapter draws on video-observation and Conversation Analysis, a methodological approach that dedicates a particular focus on the close and detailed examination of the sequence of conversational-turns, considered in their multimodal construction, i.e., including gaze, posture, facial expressions, hand movements, gestures etc., co-occurring with talk.
... One of the assessment methods used in English language teaching is the Common European Framework Reference (CEFR), which describes the process of language learning, teaching, and assessment (Europe, 2001;North, 2004). This standard is a major work initiated and implemented by the European Union to improve communication between European countries, supporting language learning and multilingual education (Van Ek, 1990). ...
There are several evaluation standards to assess English levels. Through this article, we consider the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) as an important tool. We aimed to reveal the evaluation standards used in universities and English language training courses in our country and to clarify how the standard tolerates internationally accepted English language evaluation standards. Within the scope of this goal, 27 teachers who teach English in universities and colleges in Mongolia, 22 teachers of English language training centers (general informants), and 656 students who study English in 21 universities and colleges in Mongolia (casual informants) were randomly selected and a survey with 3 groups of 24 questions was conducted over 2 months using Google Form, and the collected results were processed and compared using SPSS program.96.3% of the teachers of universities and colleges evaluate the English course on a 100-point scale. 55.5% of them agreed that the future use of CEFR assessment standards would provide a more objective assessment of students' language levels. According to the responses of training center teachers, 68.2% of the participating training center teachers evaluate the student's language level according to the CEFR standard, which shows that they use an internationally recognized evaluation method. In this regard, 42.7% of the 656 students who participated in the study agreed that the CEFR assessment standard, rather than the 100-point scale, could fully reflect their language level internationally in the future, which was in line with the researchers' hypothesis.
... Evidently, the main goal of learning a language is to develop interculturality, i.e., the linguistic and cultural competences which can lead to intercultural awareness (Council of Print ISSN: 2053-6305(Print) Online ISSN:2053-6313(online) 77 @ECRTD-UK: https://www.eajournals.org/ Publication of the European Centre for Research Training and Development -UK Europe, 2001). In recent years, teachers have begun to change their traditional methods of teaching in which culture is neglected, and move to a new method that reinforces and acknowledges ICC (Ho, 2009). ...
This study probed the intercultural communicative competence (ICC) aspects introduced in English for Palestine 12th grade textbooks. Byram’s ICC model (1997) was employed as a theoretical framework to analyze content of the textbooks. The main findings, among others, revealed that ICC aspects were not distributed evenly throughout the curriculum. The textbooks lacked numerous basic aspects required for developing students’ ICC. Little attention was devoted to raise students’ critical cultural awareness and understanding about other cultures. In light of these findings, the study recommended placing due emphasis on more ICC aspects in the curriculum and maintaining proper balance among them.
... Additionally, the fact that multiple languages are spoken through the distribution of a species does not imply that all the scientific information is being generated in different languages through the species distribution. Education systems in many countries promote learning of multiple languages (including English) that are different from the official or most spoken one in the country [30,31]. Future research is needed to understand the ability of people to work across language barriers and how it varies geographically, and also to identify particular species with low compatibility between the languages spoken within their distribution, areas with an especially large number of such species, and languages that generate such incompatibility. ...
Multiple languages being spoken within a species' distribution can impede communication among conservation stakeholders, the compilation of scientific information, and the development of effective conservation actions. Here, we investigate the number of official languages spoken within the distributions of 10,863 bird species to identify which species might be particularly affected by consequences of language barriers. We show that 1587 species have 10 languages or more spoken within their distributions. Threatened and migratory species have significantly more languages spoken within their distributions, when controlling for range size. Particularly high numbers of species with many languages within their distribution are found in Eastern Europe, Russia and central and western Asia. Global conservation efforts would benefit from implementing guidelines to overcome language barriers, especially in regions with high species and language diversity.
... After the publication of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in 2001, several studies have been conducted to explore the application and impact of CEFR in various contexts. It also offers a common basis for planning language prospectuses, instructional curriculum guides, exams, and textbooks (Council of Europe, 2001). CEFR has taken on an influential role in language teaching around Europe as well as around the globe. ...
The study's objective was to evaluate the vocabulary of the English textbooks of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia at the Intermediate level (11th and 12th year) of education. Corpus linguistics is the primary domain of the present study. The corpus of the books was analysed through the Range software (2005). The corpus of CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) was deducted with Frequency software. The vocabulary of the textbooks was evaluated in terms of Corporal size, Word types, and CEFR vocabulary standards. The availability and unavailability of the word types and the CEFR vocabulary were examined. The data were compared in terms of vocabulary size, types, and CEFR corpus. The analysis showed a deficiency in the vocabulary introduced by both books of English in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The word types and the vocabulary of the CEFR corpus were deficient than the standard they are needed. Comparatively, the textbooks of English of Pakistan were found to havea greater corporal size, word types, and CEFR corpus vocabulary than that available in the textbooks of Saudi Arabia.
... Qualitative feedback on scoring rubrics is useful especially in educational contexts where the assessment criteria are mostly likely to be used by writing instructors. One example of this approach is the development and validation of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) based on learning objectives and extensive qualitative feedback from the practicing teachers (Council of Europe, 2001;North, 2000). Thus, the consideration of instructors' challenges and priorities when specifying achievement standards and validating evaluation rubrics helps bridge the gap between assessment and classroom teaching practices. ...
Although researchers have argued for a mixed-method approach to rubric design and validation, such research is sparse in the area of L2 integrated writing. This article reports on the validation of an analytic rubric for assessing a classroom-based integrated writing test. Argumentative integrated essays (N = 48) written by EAP students at an English-medium Canadian university were rated by instructors (N = 10) with prior EAP teaching experience. Employing a mixed methods design, the quality of the rubric was established through many facet Rasch measurement and perceptions from the instructors elicited during semi-structured interviews. To further explore the rubric’s ability to differentiate among students, essays from three performance levels (low, average, high) were compared in terms of fluency, syntactic and lexical complexity, cohesion, and lexical diversity measures. Results have suggested the rubric can capture variation in student performance. Implications are discussed in terms of validation of assessment rubrics in localized assessment contexts.
... Based on the evaluation and impression of the clinician, language proficiency was categorised as: "High Language Proficiency", roughly corresponding to levels B1 to C2 of the European Language Framework [17] or "Low Language Proficiency", corresponding to levels A1 and A2, including cases where an interpreter was required. We defined language-distance according to the distance between the language of the country of origin to German [18,19], using these categories: Germanic; Indo-European; and Other Language Families (see Appendix). ...
Background
Mastery of a language is bound to place of origin; low language proficiency is thus related to migration and cultural differences, all of which influence access to mental health care, treatment and outcomes. Switzerland, being multilingual, allows the disentangling of language proficiency from migration and, to some extent, culture. This study uses propensity score matching to explore how language proficiency relates to help-seeking behaviour, service use, treatment and outcomes in patients with mental health disorders.
Methods
We used the first admission of patients admitted to and discharged from an academic psychiatric hospital in Switzerland between January 1st, 2013 and December 31st, 2019, with an observation period of one-year post-discharge. We paired 2101 patients with low language proficiency to 2101 language proficient patients, balancing baseline sociodemographic and clinical characteristics using propensity score matching.
Results
Patients with low language proficiency had a higher probability of compulsory admission (OR: 1.79, 99%CI: 1.60–2.02); which remaind after adjustment for confounders (OR: 1.51; 99%CI: 1.21–1.89). Whilst in treatment they had higher rates of compulsory medication (OR: 1.73, 99%CI: 1.16–2.59) and seclusion/restraint (OR: 1.87, 99%CI: 1.25–2.79). Furthermore, patients initially admitted voluntarily had a higher probability of being compulsorily retained (OR: 1.74, 99%CI: 1.24–2.46). Both groups showed similar clinical improvement rates and service use parameters.
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate that low language proficiency constitutes a risk factor for coercive treatment throughout hospitalisation. The results demonstrate the need for an increase in language sensitivity in psychiatric care.
... for Italian and German language to be recognised as equivalent to the provincial exam, and adopting the levels of Common European Framework of Reference for Languages -CEFR (Alto Adige, 2010;European Council, 2001;Hell, 2010). ...
This report is part of the project Institutional bilingualism in the ethnically mixed area of Slovenia, and aims to provide an in-depth evaluation of programmes promoting multilingualism in the public service. To this end, Chapter 1 analyses the functioning of such programmes in several Western countries whose public administrations and socio-economic conditions are closest to those in Slovenia, namely Belgium, Canada and Italy. Chapter 2 presents an up-to-date review of the literature on monetary incentive schemes used in the public sector to improve employee performance. After examining the peculiarities of public employees’ motivation, and their connection to incentive theories, the report highlights the conditions under which the proposed incentive schemes are effective. Finally, Chapter 3 compares existing bilingualism incentive schemes and evaluates them on the basis of the literature on performance-related pay.
... All participants were recruited from the same class, an intermediate (B1) English language course, at a local adult community learning centre in the UK. Their language level was determined by this education centre through the entrance language examination and was benchmarked against the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) (Council of Europe, 2001). In terms of participants' educational background, most participants were university graduates (n = 6), n = 2 had vocational degrees, n = 1 had an A-level qualification. ...
Open Educational Resources (OERs) aim to provide equal access to education to all. Yet, the language level used in OERs in English was found to require native speaker or advanced English language proficiency. There is a call to make these resources more comprehensible, yet, few previous studies have explored the effects of simplifying OERs for non-native English speakers (NNES). This study aims to address this gap by testing whether text simplification of OER reading materials facilitates text processing. To that end, eye-tracking stimulated recall interviews were conducted with nine NNES at lower levels of English proficiency reading authentic and linguistically simplified OERs in English. Content analysis of participants’ thought processes during each eye fixation and look-back in the texts suggested that text simplification led to a reduction in cognitive load and the increase in the usage of higher-level processing. Both findings provide some emerging evidence in support of the use of simplification when adapting OERs to the global audience of NNES. These findings are further discussed in the light of their practical applications for online teaching with OERs.
The present study provides the first empiric evidence that the creation of human–machine peer learning (HMPL) couples can lead to an increase in the level of mastery of different competences in both humans and machines alike. The feasibility of the HMPL approach is demonstrated by means of Curriculum 1 whereby the human learner H gradually acquires a vocabulary of foreign language, while the artificial learner fine-tunes its ability to understand H's speech. The present study evaluated the feasibility of the HMPL approach in a proof-of-concept experiment that is composed of a pre-learn assessment, a mutual learning phase, and post-learn assessment components. Pre-learn assessment allowed us to estimate prior knowledge of foreign language learners by asking them to name visual cues corresponding to one among 100 German nouns. In a subsequent mutual learning phase, learners are asked to repeat the audio recording containing the label of a simultaneously presented word with the visual cue. After the mutual learning phase is over, the subjacent speech-to-text (STT) neural network fine-tunes its parameters and adapts itself to peculiar properties of H's voice. Finally, the exercise is terminated by the post-learn assessment phase. In both assessment phases, the number of mismatches between the expected answer and the answer provided by human and recognized by machine provides the metrics of the main evaluation. In the case of all six learners who participated in the proof-of-concept experiment, we observed an increase in the amount of matches between expected and predicted labels, which was caused both by an increase in human learner's vocabulary as well as by an increase in the recognition accuracy of machine's speech-to-text model. Therefore, the present study considers it reasonable to postulate that curricula could be drafted and deployed for different domains of expertise, whereby humans learn from AIs at the same time as AIs learn from humans.
Introductory considerations on the growing interest in the theory and practice of language simplification and intralingual translation, on some insights, results and the current accessibility-related issues and desiderata (introduction to the volume).
This paper contributes to conversations which examine the effectiveness of grammar knowledge courses in native speaker (NS) UK pre-service TESOL education. A three-year longitudinal study was undertaken at a UK university. It explored 10 UK NS participants’ ability to demonstrate grammatical awareness during their TESOL practicum after studying a 48-contact hour explicit grammar knowledge course before procedural TESOL education began. Quantitative and qualitative, deductive and inductive thematic coding were undertaken using the participants’ reflective teaching summaries and interview transcripts to identify examples of established grammar awareness themes. Findings indicated that the participants considered the process of gaining grammar knowledge challenging but essential for TESOL. Grammatical awareness was demonstrated through metalinguistic knowledge, metalanguage, noticing and language teaching beliefs during the practicum.
Cette thèse s’inscrit dans un cadre interdisciplinaire, au croisement de la linguistique appliquée – plus précisément, de la linguistique de corpus – et de la didactique de l'enseignement des langues étrangères. Au cœur de ce travail se situent les considérations concernant la création et l’analyse de corpus dans le cadre pédagogique. Notre premier but est de démontrer une interconnexion étroite entre lexique et grammaire dans le cas des langues morphologiquement complexes d’une part et le potentiel d’une approche lexico-grammaticale pour l’enseignement de ces langues de l’autre. Les démonstrations seront effectuées en utilisant le hongrois comme exemple. Nous argumenterons également que pour parvenir aux besoins des apprenants (avant tout aux niveaux de compétences linguistiques inférieurs), il est nécessaire de créer de nouveaux corpus pédagogiques selon des principes particuliers.La thèse se divise en trois parties. La Partie I est dédiée au recensement de la littérature sur les avancées de la linguistique de corpus. Elle présente les méthodes de ce domaine et ses résultats pertinents ainsi que les principes de base de création de corpus et d’ouvrages pédagogiques se fondant sur une « approche corpus ». La Partie II traite de l’exploration des corpus non pédagogiques au service de l’enseignement du hongrois. À cette fin, deux aspects lexicaux et deux aspects grammaticaux sont analysés en détail. La Partie III concerne la création et l’utilisation des corpus pédagogiques pour l’observation et la pratique langagières. Nous explorerons leur potentiel et leurs limites à travers l’exemple concret des corpus compilés pour la série de manuels « MagyarOK ». Les considérations autour de l’équilibre entre authenticité et accessibilité seront également abordées.
Background
Variations in the skill profiles of learners have become an important research area in recent years. However, there is a lack of empirical research on this topic in Japan. We conducted three studies to address this gap.
Methods
Study 1 investigated the characteristics of the flat and uneven skill profiles of Japanese learners of English using 10 datasets from five standardized four-skill second-language English proficiency tests. Studies 2 and 3 examined the reasons behind learners having these uneven profiles using a convergent mixed-methods approach (Creswell & Plano Clark, Designing and conducting mixed methods research, 2018) that consisted of a questionnaire and an interview, respectively.
Results
The results of Study 1 suggested that a flat profile is uncommon, and that various types of uneven profiles exist across datasets. The most frequently observed uneven profiles were as follows: (a) listening, speaking, and writing are lower than reading (LSW<R); (b) speaking and writing are lower than listening and reading (SW<LR); and (c) speaking is lower than the other three skills (S<LRW). The results of Studies 2 and 3 suggested three key reasons, namely, (a) insufficient practice, (b) particular subskills or processes required to accomplish test tasks, and (c) unfamiliarity with test formats and test-taking environments.
Conclusions
The results demonstrated the importance of considering uneven skill profiles in L2 research and practice. These results have implications for test development, admission, placement, and pedagogy. For example, skill profile information can benefit admission and placement officers when they make a decision and can aid teachers and administrators in planning remedial instructions.
Culture has been the focus of teachers and specialists in language learning environments in
various contexts. This study examines Arab learners’ views on the impact of culture on language
learning. The study is qualitative in nature and used open-ended interviews with a sample of 25
participants from the Department of English and Translation at Qassim University. The
interviews with the participants are recorded, transcribed, and classified under themes. The
findings showed that students believe that the teaching materials, pedagogy, and teachers’
developments are not sufficient to develop students communicating in the target language.
Furthermore, the study showed that view opportunities can be exploited to expose to the target
language culture in the classroom. They reported low awareness of the combination of learning
both language and culture in language acquisition, it is not easy to absorb culture though. The
study also shows that culture affects the communication skills of learners. The study urges
language teachers to emphasize awareness of the target language culture in their classrooms.
They should also introduce their learners to the differences between Arabic and English to avoid
miscommunication and undue adoption of cultural traits.
The notion of embodied learning has gained ground in educational sciences over the last decade and has made its way to language education with researchers acknowledging language learning as an embodied process. This mixed studies review aggregates and reviews empirical research, published from 1990 to 2020, using embodied learning approaches in language education. The review focuses on embodied approaches in learning and teaching first, second, and foreign languages at various educational levels. It encompasses 41 empirical studies with a majority published between 2019 and 2020, suggesting that the research area is growing rapidly. The results show that the studies align with two strands: (1) embodied learning through orchestrating embodied language learning and teaching, and (2) embodied learning in naturally occurring language learning interactions. The review identifies various embodied learning activities and presents how they contribute to language learning and teaching in different ways. The review proposes an understanding of embodied language learning that holds potentials to engage learners holistically, while simultaneously promoting language learning skills and adding emotional and motivational benefits to language learning.
Resumen Hoy en día, el Inglés, ya sea como lengua nativa, segunda o lengua extranjera, establece o determina el futuro de miles de profesionales alrededor del mundo. Siendo consciente de tal emergente fenómeno, el gobierno colombiano ha establecido por ley que los docentes de educación primaria deben enseñar inglés como lengua extranjera. Enseñar una lengua extranjera exige preparación y los docentes de primaria del Chocó están todavía en busca de una solución para alcanzar tal objetivo. Por lo tanto, este Artículo ha analizado la difícil situación que los docentes de primaria del Chocó afrontan a la hora de enseñar ILE (inglés como lengua extranjera) en el aula de educación básica. Igualmente, y, de manera general ha descrito la existencia de algunos factores sociales, culturales, políticos y académicos que, de una u otra forma, pueden intervenir en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje del inglés como lengua extranjera en la educación primaria del Chocó. Para la dimensión práctica de la investigación, se aplicaron ambos métodos (cuantitativo y cualitativo). Es decir, se implementó un cuestionario como el instrumento de recogida de datos de tipo cuantitativo y la entrevista y la observación de aula como los instrumentos del corte cualitativo. El estudio ha revelado que el profesorado en servicio de primaria del Chocó carece de los conocimientos básicos para enseñar Inglés a los niños de dicho nivel; ya que no cuenta con formación ni lingüística ni metodológica para este fin. En consecuencia, una de las conclusiones del presente estudio se fundamenta en la necesidad que poseen dichos docentes de ser formados profesionalmente para mejorar sus capacidades tanto lingüísticas como metodológicas en ILE. EFL in the Primary Classroom: The Ongoing Reality of Chocó Dr. Alexander Córdoba M. Abstract English either as a native, second or foreign language, sets or determines the coming future for thousands of professionals around the globe today. Being aware of such a salient phenomenon, the Colombian government has established that primary school teachers must teach English as a foreign language. Teaching foreign language demands preparation and primary school teachers from Chocó are still in search of a solution to achieve such a goal. This Paper has therefore, analyzed the crucial situation that primary school teachers from Chocó face when teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) in the primary classroom. Furthermore, it has to some extent, described the existing of some social, cultural, political and academic factors which may intervene in the EFL context of Chocó's primary Education as well. Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied in the development of the investigation. A questionnaire was implemented as the quantitative data collection instrument and the interview and classroom observation as the qualitative data collection instruments. The study has revealed that in-service primary teachers from Chocó lack of the knowledge they need to teach English to young children as they are trained neither from a linguistic nor from a methodological point of view. Thus, one of the conclusions of this study is the need the target primary teachers have to receive an in-service training course aimed at improving their linguistic and methodological EFL skills.
صدر الإطار الأوروبي المرجعي المشترك للغات سيفر للمرة الأولى عام 2001م، ثم صدر تحديث له بعنوان المجلد المصاحب عام 2018م، بعد ذلك صدرت طبعة ثانية من المجلد المصاحب عام 2020م، وقد صار هذا الإطار مرجعا أساسيا لنظم تعليم اللغات الأجنبية حول العالم وخاصة في دول مجلس أوربا، مما تَطَلَّبَ دليلاً يوضح كيفية الربط بين موارد تعليم اللغات ومعايير هذا الإطار.
تقدم هذه الورقة عرضا موجزا لـكتاب "دليل مواءمة تعليم اللغة مع الإطار المرجعي الأوروبي المشترك للغات" وقد صدر هذا الدليل بالإنجليزية في إبريل/نيسان 2022 عن أربع مؤسسات أوربية معنية بتعليم اللغات.
ويهدف الدليل إلى مساعدة العاملين في مجال تعليم اللغات الأجنبية -من معلمين ومختبرين ومؤلفين والجهات المعنية بتعليم اللغات -على مواءمة المناهج اللغوية والكتب التعليمية والاختبارات بأنواعها وبرامج تدريب معلمي اللغات والمواد التعليمية بشكل عام مع معايير الإطار المرجعي الأوروبيّ، سواء أكانت هذه المواد جاهزة بالفعل أو في طور الإعداد.
تكوّن الدليل من ستة فصول هي: الإطار المرجعي الأوروبيّ، وتعريف، والتوصيف، والمعايرة، والتوحيد القياسي، التحقق من ادعائك. ثم ملحق يتضمن استمارات للمساعدة في عملية المواءمة.
يتوقع معدو الدليل أنه سيُزيد من شفافية نظم تعليم اللغات وتعلمها وتقييمها، كما سيسهل المقارنة بين النظم التعليمية المختلفة لأنها ترجع جميعها لإطار مرجعي واحد، وهو ما سيؤدي في النهاية لضمان جودة التعليم اللغوي.
While the L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) (Dörnyei, 2005, 2019) has been researched extensively in the Hungarian context, it has not been used to test international students' motivational dispositions towards learning foreign languages. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to report a study that aimed to test the L2MSS on 34 international students who learned Hungarian or English as a foreign language (EFL) during their studies in Hungary. The pilot questionnaire contained nine scales adapted from Taguchi, Magid, and Papi (2009). Besides the ideal L2 self and ought-to L2 self, the scales measured other influential learning and environmental impacts that exert their influence on the L2 learning experience, the third constituent of the model, with a view to better understanding what motivates international students to learn foreign languages. The findings of the pilot revealed that the adapted instrument worked in the Hungarian context and that international learners' motivational dispositions were mostly affected by learners' attitudes towards the foreign language community. Linear regression analysis revealed that the participants' motivated learning behavior could be predicted by their intrinsic and instrumental motivation. Significant differences were found between male and female respondents regarding their L2 ought-to selves and instrumental motivation. Besides explaining the attitudes that the learners have towards the foreign language community, the findings can be utilized to further enhance learners' motivation once the results are fed back to the community of professionals teaching similar students.
Zusammenfassung
Der Beitrag untersucht rezeptive und produktive Wortschatzkompetenzen von N = 340 internationalen Studierenden an deutschen Hochschulen mittels frequenzbasierter Wortschatztests. Es wird untersucht, inwiefern Wortschatzkompetenz und Studienerfolg zusammenhängen und ob die Absolvent:innen verschiedener Sprachtests zum Nachweis sprachlicher Studierfähigkeit (z. B. DSH, TestDaF) vergleichbare Wortschatzkompetenzen aufweisen.
บทความชิ้นนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อนำเสนอวิธีการจัดทำสื่อการสอนออนไลน์และศึกษาผลการใช้งานหลักสูตรออนไลน์ CHULA MOOC รายวิชา ภาษาไทยเพื่อการสื่อสารสำหรับชาวต่างชาติ ทั้งผลในแง่ของสัมฤทธิผลและความพึงพอใจของผู้เรียน ผู้เขียนมีการจัดเตรียมและวางโครงสร้างของเนื้อหาของบทเรียนโดยใช้ตัวชี้วัดต่างๆ ของกรอบมาตรฐานการประเมินความสามารถทางภาษาจากประเทศในกลุ่มสหภาพยุโรปและบูรณาการวิธีการสอนหลายรูปแบบโดยถ่ายทอดเนื้อหาผ่านการใช้สัทอักษรสากล เมื่อศึกษาผลหลังการใช้สื่อ พบว่าผู้เรียนมีพัฒนาการด้านความรู้และทักษะในการฟัง พูด และสื่อสารด้วยภาษาไทย และมีความพึงพอใจในคุณภาพของหลักสูตรโดยภาพรวมค่อนข้างมาก และผู้เรียนส่วนใหญ่คิดว่าหลักสูตรได้บรรลุวัตถุประสงค์การสอนตามที่ได้ระบุไว้และตรงตามความคาดหวังของผู้เรียน
This article aims to present the method of creating an online teaching material and study the results of using an online course on CHULA MOOC called “Communicative Thai for Foreigners” in terms of learners’ achievement and satisfaction. In the production process, the researcher organized and structured the contents of the lessons according to the descriptors of The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and integrated various types of teaching methods as well as using International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to convey the contents to the learners. After the course completion, it is found that the learners have improved their knowledge and skills of listening, speaking, and communicating in Thai. They are quite satisfied with the overall quality of the course and think that the course met its stated objectives and learners’ expectations.
This paper examines informal learning practices of Spanish university EFL learners of different proficiency levels with authentic videos in English and the reasons for engaging in this activity. For this purpose, one hundred and fifty-six students of mixed proficiency levels completed a questionnaire. The general percentages revealed that the majority of them are exposed to authentic videos with very high or considerably high frequency, they normally undertake this activity alone using their computers, laptops or mobile phones, and they tend to watch authentic videos with captions/subtitles either in English or in Spanish. The Internet and streaming services were identified as the two most commonly used sources. Furthermore, many of the respondents enjoy this activity and find it particularly useful for developing their listening skills and lexis. A statistical analysis of the results revealed a clear impact of the proficiency level on the frequency of exposure, the use of subtitles/captions, the sources and reasons for doing this informal activity.
The promotion of language ideologies, policies and pedagogies that treat languages as separate and hierarchical has become a central concern for critical education scholars. In this case study, I explore how school actors at Colegio Colombiano (CC), an international school in Colombia, engaged with critical approaches to bi/multilingual education to leverage the fluid identities and languaging practices of plurilingual teachers and students.
In my first data chapter, I place CC within its larger educational context by showing how a logic of coloniality informs both public and private K-12 foreign language education in Colombia. This logic of coloniality reflects a hierarchy of actors within the field of foreign language education in Colombia with external international organizations holding significant power and influence over local priorities. I build on these findings to call international schools into current conversations about decolonizing language education in Colombia.
In my second data chapter, I consider how school actors’ language ideologies impacted the creation and enactment of language policies at CC. I describe a spectrum to show how faculty demonstrated a significant shift away from hegemonic ideologies and oppressive language policies through an increasing recognition of the importance of Spanish. While explicit messages about English as superior were no longer officially promoted at CC, colonialistic ideologies and policies persisted which valorized English, denigrated Spanish, and completely ignored other societal and home languages.
In my final data chapter, I explore how teachers and students engaged with translanguaging pedagogies. While many teachers expressed a desire to leverage their and their students’ plurilingual repertoires they felt limited by significant obstacles, including the school’s strict model of language separation. Elementary students generally demonstrated a willingness to engage with translanguaging pedagogies, while older students expressed a complex resistance as they negotiated their bilingual identities.
In my concluding chapter, I return to the identified logic of coloniality to discuss how international school communities can unveil and interrogate colonialistic understandings of languages, language users and languaging practices. I propose the Decolonizing International Multilingual Education (DIME) framework as a tool to guide schools in the work of decolonizing their language programs.
กระทรวงศึกษาธิการกำหนดนโยบายยกระดับและพัฒนาทักษะภาษาอังกฤษของไทยให้สอดคล้องกับทักษะในศตวรรษที่ 21 โดยใช้กรอบอ้างอิง CEFR กับนักศึกษาระดับปริญญาตรี รหัสปี 2559 เป็นครั้งแรก การวิจัยนี้จึงมีวัตถุประสงค์เพื่อศึกษาการรับรู้และความคิดเห็นของนักศึกษาต่อความสำคัญและการเข้าถึงนโยบายและแนวปฏิบัติในการยกระดับมาตรฐานภาษาอังกฤษตามกรอบอ้างอิง CEFR ของมหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏนครศรีธรรมราช กลุ่มตัวอย่างประกอบด้วย นักศึกษาชั้นปีที่ 1 ถึงชั้นปีที่ 3 จำนวน 225 คน จากทั้ง 5 คณะ ผู้วิจัยเก็บรวบรวมข้อมูลโดยใช้แบบสอบถามและแบบสัมภาษณ์ จากนั้นวิเคราะห์ข้อมูลเชิงปริมาณด้วยโปรแกรมไมโครซอฟท์เอ็กซ์เซล และวิเคราะห์ข้อมูลเชิงคุณภาพโดยการวิเคราะห์เนื้อหา ผลการวิจัยพบว่า นักศึกษามีความเข้าใจต่อนโยบายด้านภาษาอังกฤษของมหาวิทยาลัยและต่อกรอบอ้างอิง CEFR ในด้านความหมาย ความสามารถทางภาษาที่แตกต่างกันในแต่ละระดับ นักศึกษาเห็นประโยชน์ในการเข้าร่วมโครงการพัฒนาภาษาอังกฤษและการนำมาประยุกต์ใช้ในระดับมาก นอกจากนี้ยังพบว่าการนำนโยบายด้านพัฒนาภาษาอังกฤษมาประยุกต์ใช้ตรงต่อความคาดหวังและความต้องการของนักศึกษา อีกทั้งนักศึกษายังรับรู้ว่ากรอบอ้างอิง CEFR เป็นเครื่องมือใช้วัดระดับความสามารถด้านภาษาอังกฤษ และมีผลวิจัยบ่งชี้ว่าคณะ สาขาวิชา และอาจารย์ที่ปรึกษาให้ความร่วมมือกับศูนย์ภาษาเป็นสื่อกลางในการประชาสัมพันธ์โครงการให้แก่นักศึกษา ผลการวิจัยยังสะท้อนว่านักศึกษาเริ่มให้ความสำคัญต่อนโยบายและโครงการต่าง ๆ ที่เกี่ยวข้องกับกรอบอ้างอิง CEFR มากขึ้น นักศึกษามีการปรับเปลี่ยนทัศนคติต่อนโยบายการพัฒนาภาษาอังกฤษไปในทางที่ดี ผลการวิจัยนี้สามารถนำมาเป็นฐานข้อมูลประกอบการออกแบบโครงการพัฒนาภาษาอังกฤษตามกรอบอ้างอิง CEFR ให้แก่นักศึกษาของมหาวิทยาลัยราชภัฏและมหาวิทยาลัยอื่น ๆ ทั่วประเทศ
Considering that literature can work as an instigator of constructive emotions (ROSIEK, 2003ROSIEK, J. Emotional Scaffolding: an exploration of the teacher knowledge at the intersection of student emotion and the subject matter. Journal of Teacher Education, 2003. ), and given that the Sociocultural Historical Theory based on Vygotsky recognizes emotions as an important aspect of the individual’s development (VYGOTSKY, 1989), this study aims at analyzing the multimodal narratives (BARKHUIZEN; BENSON; CHIK, 2014BARKHUIZEN, G.; BENSON, P.; CHIK, A. Narrative inquiry in language teaching and learning research. New York: Routledge, 2014. ) provided by ten public high school students. Data for this study were generated on-line due to the COVID-19 pandemic and regard their memories of the use of literature in 2018 and 2019. We analyzed the presence of emotions as motivators for engagement and, thus, beneficial for language development, collaborating to fulfill the gap in empirical research on literature and emotions in lessons of English as an Additional Language (PARAN, 2008PARAN, A. The role of literature in instructed foreign language learning and teaching: An evidence-based survey. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. v. 41; BLOEMERT et. al., 2019BLOEMERT, J. et al. Students’ perspective on the benefits of EFL literature education. Language Learning Journal, v. 47, n. 3, p. 371-384, 2019. ).
KEYWORDS:
English as an Additional Language; literature; narrative inquiry; Sociocultural Historical Theory; emotions
The fundamental reason for this survey is to point out the challenges encountered by the teachers, students, schools, and parents in facing and handling oral speech communication subjects during the pandemic. Given that, most of the medium of instruction used is distance learning. It poses issues and concerns about how our respondents dealt with the situation. A descriptive-survey research design was used to obtain themes and phenomena to the questions provided. The questionnaire includes questions that seek to gather information on their basic profile, current experiences, and behavior towards the problem. It was found out that the different problems encountered by the teachers, students, school, and parents include the validity of the issue, the lack of motivation which was a very complicated problem because it deals with emotional readiness and stability, and the difficulty in comprehending the topics of the module because lessons are not explained personally by the teachers. Therefore, oral speech communication requires an in-depth shift in lesson delivery to cater to the needs for improvement.
Instructional design has a strong influence on the success of university-level learning. Learning in higher education is effective if it is designed properly by the course unit tutor because the instructional design helps the preparation of a good lesson plan that contains objectives, materials, methods, media, class activities, evaluations, and so on. There are various instructional design models and one of the popular designs for media application is ASSURE. Some experts use the acronym ASSURE differently. In this article, ASSURE consists of Analyze learners, State objectives, Select method-media-materials, Utilize media-materials, Require learner participation, Evaluate and revise. The ASSURE model can be applied to various fields of study and levels, but has never been published in English language learning at university. Therefore, this article will explain the application of the ASSURE model in general English courses in universities.
This final chapter helps readers reflect on the notion of innovation in language education and conceptualize its features and implications through a complex and ecological lens. Drawing on the complementary perspectives presented throughout the book, this final chapter discusses both the lessons learned throughout the LINCDIRE project and the challenges and opportunities that language teachers are faced with in today’s classrooms. The need to adopt a more holistic and integrated view of language teaching is discussed and theorized, drawing on a broad understanding of the relationship between social interaction and language development. Such understanding focuses on a dialogical, actional view of language: the process of intersubjectivity in which learners/social agents are engaged and the development of the learners/agents themselves are seen as inseparable. In addition, the pedagogical knowledge required by educators interested in cutting-edge language teaching practices across diverse and dynamic linguistic and cultural contexts is examined through complementary lenses and epistemologies. A summary of implications of engaging in the proposed pedagogical approach concludes the chapter.KeywordsInnovative language educationLessons learnedIntersubjectivityComplex adaptive systemsComplexity theoryDesign-based researchMediated teaching and learningEnactmentTransformation of identityTeacher research
In this chapter, we focus on the German integration course
for migrants, the number of which increased rapidly beginning in 2015. The courses are mandated by the German Immigration Act and represent a relatively well-financed and professional course programme within the national adult education system. The main challenges between 2015 and 2018 were the provision of a sufficient number of adequate integration courses, the successful transfer of knowledge in the teaching-learning process, and the qualification of teachers. Additionally, pass rates of integration courses, including the final examinations, declined compared with previous years. We assess how well the German integration course system met the demand in those years, and also, how successfully the adult literacy course as part of the German integration course system met its goals and facilitated success for its students. As a first step, we present data over time compiled from the official statistics for nationwide integration courses by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF
) to show developments and shifts within the course system. We then analyse the test results of participants in literacy courses from 2015 to 2018. Finally, we subject the German integration course system to a critical discussion.KeywordsGermanyIntegrationLiteracyMigrant language learning
This paper reviews the vocabulary section of Ofsted’s Curriculum Research Review of Languages (2021). It begins with a reality check and points out that while the review talks confidently of learners achieving expert levels of knowledge and performance, current learner levels are nowhere near expert. In terms of vocabulary knowledge, learners at GCSE know only 5 or 10% of the 8000 or 9000 words needed to be expert. It considers what elements are needed for a vocabulary curriculum to be effective, drawing on Milton and Hopwood’s (2022) review of the area. None of these is adequately covered. It is hard to see any logic behind the selection of ideas included in this review which are unrepresentative of vocabulary learning research and are unsystematically treated. Guidance on vocabulary size, for example, is nowhere to be found in the review but, as Alderson (2005) points out, language proficiency is very much a function of vocabulary size, so this is a disastrous oversight. The ideas provided on vocabulary selection would limit the learner’s lexicon to small numbers of overwhelming frequent vocabulary, insufficient for anything but the lowest levels of performance in the CEFR. In this review, it is as though a large lexicon were of no importance to language proficiency. The content is so thin that it is a falsehood to label this a review of research at all. What it does do, however, is to give a false veneer of respectability to current, structuralist teaching practice, which teaches very little vocabulary, and which has led directly to historically low levels of attainment in British schools.
This article presents a study on L2 writing in Italian and it aims to analyse the organisation of the information and the mechanisms of cohesion in descriptive and narrative texts written by Chinese speaking university students. For this purpose, the study, within the framework of the Quaestio model, examines, on the one hand, the global text structure and, on the other, the referential movement in the domains of time, space, persons and objects. Finally, it focuses on the cohesive devices employed by the informants. The results highlight differences between descriptive and narrative texts, concerning both the distribution of the information and cohesive relations.
Despite the important role of strategies in language learning, they have not been afforded much attention in the development of language proficiency scales. This study, situated in a nationwide project of developing China’s Standards of English language ability, presents in detail the development of a reading strategic competence scale for Chinese tertiary EFL learners, including determining the descriptive scheme, establishing the descriptor pool, constructing a preliminary scale by panel experts, and validating the calibration by Rasch Model scaling. According to the study, reading strategies are hierarchical in difficulty levels, and two levels can be set for Chinese tertiary EFL learners. A very clear progression is visible in the content of the final scale. Based on the findings, pedagogical implications for teachers and learners to use the scale are discussed.
This study aims to go one step forward in understanding the influence the first foreign language has on the second foreign language learned by the same person. It investigates the influence of English on learning the past tenses of verbs in German in a group of second-term undergraduate students of German at the University of São Paulo who already had some experience of studying English. Data collection took place by administering a questionnaire and test of the English skills of the participants, followed by three other written activities, all executed in the classroom. A first quantitative analysis focused both on the informants' knowledge level of the verb forms of the past in English and on their successes and failures in activities containing verb forms of the past in German. The qualitative analysis of some selected participants' performance showed that the best performance in all activities was obtained by the informant who, despite previous experience of studying English, had no solid knowledge of the language. However, the informants with an intermediate level of English knowledge obtained quite different results, which revealed the importance of not generalizing about German learners with English language skills as if they were all the same standard.
Despite the increasing awareness of digital games’ potential for language learning, only a handful of studies focus on their integration into classrooms. Informed by bridging activities, this mixed methods case study recruited six students to engage in instructed gameplay in class and game-related activities after class. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed so as to measure participants’ learning outcome, document their engagement, and explore their perceptions of game-based language learning. Results suggest progress in vocabulary recall and transfer. Participants also reported gains in writing and listening, satisfaction with the project, along with a positive attitude towards GBLL. Moreover, it is found that the instructor has a pivotal role to play in pre-game set-up, in-game guidance and post-game feedback. The study yields empirical evidence regarding the benefits of GBLL and may hold pedagogical implications for the integration of games into educational settings. The limitations of this research and future directions are also discussed.
The chapters in this book discuss studies that resist modernity and coloniality
in the field of English as a second language which is foreign but used all over
the world: English as a language existing in contexts where it functions as a
lingua franca – or maybe not quite. They focus on the teaching-learning of
English in Colombia, where it is not an official language nor a must for intranational communication. In this book, the PhD students of the Doctorado
Interinstitucional en Educación problematize the impacts of teaching-learning
English on the subjectivities of non-native teachers and learners of English,
considering regional policies for the education of English teachers that seem
to emulate practices from the global north without much, if any, regard for
local contexts. Some of them also struggle against the centrality of research
methods and quality criteria set up by the global north, refusing to abide
by their rules and thus making explicit the violence inherent in established
practices in the ELT field, whose research protocols, scientific methods, norms
and characteristics of academic writing hide their situatedness and project
themselves as purportedly global quality-control systems. (Preface by Clarissa Menezes-)
Most language proficiency exams in Europe are presently developed so that reported scores can be related to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; (Council of Europe. 2001. Common European framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.). Before any CEFR linking process can take place, such tests should be shown to be both valid and reliable, as “if an exam is not valid or reliable, it is meaningless to link it to the CEFR [and] a test that is not reliable cannot, by definition, be valid” (Alderson, Charles J. 2012. Principles and practice in language testing: compliance or conflict? Presentation at TEA SIG Conference: Innsbruck. http://tea.iatefl.org/inns.html (accessed May 2017).). In the test development process, tasks developed based on test specifications must therefore be piloted in order to check that test items perform as predicted. The present article focuses on the statistical analysis of test trial data provided by the piloting of three B1 listening tasks carried out at the University of Granada’s Modern Language Center (CLM). Here, results from a detailed Rasch analysis of the data showed the test to be consistently measuring a unidimensional construct of listening ability. In order to confirm that the test contains items at the correct difficulty level, teacher judgements of candidates’ listening proficiency were also collected. The test was found to separate A2 and B1 candidates well; used in conjunction with the establishment of appropriate cut scores, the reported score can be considered an accurate representation of CEFR B1 listening proficiency. The study demonstrates how Rasch measurement can be used as part of the test development process in order to make improvements to test tasks and hence create more reliable tests
Growing evidence suggests that auditory processing ability may a crucial determinant of language learning, including adult second language (L2) speech learning. The current study tested 47 Chinese English-as-a-Foreign-Language students to examine the extent to which two types of auditory processing-perceptual acuity and audio-motor integration-related to improvements in the comprehensibility and nativelikeness of L2 speech following two weeks of choral repetition training (i.e., shadowing). All participants' pronunciation proficiency became significantly more comprehensible over time, and the degree of improvement in the nativelikeness of pronunciation was tied to the ability to remember and reproduce sounds (i.e., audio-motor integration). The findings suggest that robust auditory-motor integration may play a key role in the acquisition of advanced-level L2 pronunciation proficiency (i.e., comprehensible and nativelike speech).
Malaysian education has undergone several changes since the implementation of Malaysia Education Blueprint (MEB) 2013-2025. The reformation of MEB has brought Common European Framework of References (CEFR) in Malaysian English Language Teaching (ELT). The implementation of CEFR was perceived as a great platform that can improve the standard of ELT in the country to be at the global standard. Realising this aspiration, the government proposed to relook and redevelop the proficiency among English language teachers. Hence, CEFR-Readiness Test was administered to measure the language proficiency level among the English language teachers in accordance with CEFR level descriptors. This paper will be looking into the awareness and the views of teachers towards the implementation of CEFR-Readiness Test. In addition, this study also will delve into looking at the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) measures that can be taken to improve the CEFR-Readiness Test based on the perspectives of secondary school teachers. The data was collected through mixed method approach by using the questionnaires and open-ended questions in the questionnaire to address the research objectives of the study. This study concluded that ESL teachers have a high level of awareness towards the implementation of CEFR-Readiness Test. However, they posited a negative view towards CEFR-Readiness initiative in measuring their language proficiency. Hence, several improvement measures like facilities improvement, task redesign, teachers' training and time allocation have been proposed in the findings of the research. The findings of the research will be useful in upgrading the quality control of assessment tools pertaining to CEFR in Malaysian education context.
Although educational robots are known for their capability to support language learning, how actual interaction processes lead to positive learning outcomes has not been sufficiently examined. To explore the instructional design and the interaction effects of robot-assisted language learning (RALL) on learner performance, this study systematically reviewed twenty-two empirical studies published between 2010 and 2020. Through an inclusion/exclusion procedure, general research characteristics such as the context, target language, and research design were identified. Further analysis on oral interaction design, including language teaching methods, interactive learning tasks, interaction processes, interactive agents, and interaction effects showed that the communicative or storytelling approach served as the dominant methods complemented by total physical response and audiolingual methods in RALL oral interactions. The review provides insights on how educational robots can facilitate oral interactions in language classrooms, as well as how such learning tasks can be designed to effectively utilize robotic affordances to fulfill functions that used to be provided by human teachers alone. Future research directions point to a focus on meaning-based communication and intelligibility in oral production among language learners in RALL.
This chapter provides an insight into the implementation of a “CLIL form” of English as Medium of Instruction (EMI) in three pre-service teacher education courses. Their design and delivery exposes learners progressively to Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) principles and strategies, and, through effective scaffolding, ensures the students’ mastery of both content and specialist linguistic skills, regardless of initial proficiency and avoiding the use of the L1 as a mediating approach. In the first two EMI courses, devoted to language pedagogy, specialist content knowledge is mainly mediated by extensive and systematic use of formative assessment strategies, crucial in the students’ development of specialized functional language skills (Richards, RELC Journal, 48, 7–30, 2017). The third one, Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL), is a team-taught CLIL course on bilingual education, in which students have the possibility of learning the rationale and foundations of the CLIL approach from an authentic co-teaching experience in which they also take part. Thus far, evidence collected regarding student performance and perceptions support the view that CLIL is an effective approach to bilingual instruction in tertiary education (Custodio-Espinar et al., Effects of co-teaching on CLIL teacher trainees’ collaborative competence, in press; Lasagabaster, Language Teaching, 51, 400416, 2018).
Introduction. The higher education system is being modernized at the Master’s level according to the requirements of the Federal State Educational Standards 3++. Teaching English to non-English major students shows that the intensive use of electronic learning tools requires the development of a system of tasks for effective language training. The purpose of the article is to develop a system of tasks for the developing EFL graduates’ communicative competence and to prove its effectiveness in teaching practice. Materials and methods. The pilot training was conducted at the North-Eastern Federal University named after M. K. Ammosov (N=90) and the Arctic State University of Agriculture and Technology (N=60) during one academic year. Classes were conducted both in full-time and remotely using the Zoom platform and the virtual learning environment Moodle. The entrance and final diagnostics were conducted in all four English skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) to determine the level of EFL communicative competence in Master’s students. Results of the study. The obtained results of the diagnostic stage determined the directions of training in order to improve students’ EFL communicative competence: 1) modernization of the language education (updating the English course content); 2) development of a system of tasks for the organizing distance learning (updating of the educational and methodological complex). The results of the final testing indicate an increase in the level of EFL communicative competence at the end of the pilot training: 1) the average value for listening, speaking and writing increased by 1.5 times at the significance level p≤0.01; 2) the average value for reading increased by 2.5 times at the significance level p≤0.01.
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