Transcript Document

Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Training teachers to use the
European Language Portfolio
Project C6 of the ECML
2nd medium-term programme (ELP_TT)
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Linking assessment to the ELP/CEFR
Hans-Peter Hodel
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Plan
• Why this topic?
• Approach: CEFR descriptors as assessment
resources
• 2 types of specification (general/detailed)
• 2 types of assessment (external or selfassessment / interpretation of performance in
terms of level)
• Comments / workshops
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Why this topic?
• ELP: self-assessment
• ELP and institutions: assessment
• Swiss ELP: role of final exams, internal and
external qualifications (interpreting
performance)
• ELP: designing exams (specify)
How to reconcile transparency,
comparability and feasibility?
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Approach: descriptors
• Activities and skills descriptors help to answer
the questions:
1) What is assessed?
2) How is performance interpreted?
• 1) = specification of the content of tests and
exams in terms of objectives
2) = criteria to determine whether the
objectives have been met
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
General specification
• Descriptors of communicative activities
(ELP/CEFR) + competence scales (ELP/CEFR)
• Validity of tests < > descriptors covering a
sample of representative types of speech
• Example
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Detailed specification
• Method 1 (principal): descriptors of
communicative activities (ELP/CEFR) +
competence scales (ELP/CEFR)
• Method 2 (supplementary): break down the
descriptor (< sentences, implicit components)
• Detailed specification in reception (methods 1
and 2) >> development of items
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Performance interpretation
• External assessment/self-assessment of
tasks/authentic activities << activity
descriptors
• Assess/mark performance in terms of skill level
<< descriptors of competences
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Comments
• Assessment of
knowledge
(achievement test)
• Assessment of capacity
(proficiency test)
• Close to the learner
• Clarity
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Workshop 1 – specification
• Development of part of two assessment tests of oral
expression (adjacent levels, A2 and B1)
• One part = one single objective per level – determined
in advance and marked "workshop 1" on the checklist
(photocopy)
• Development = detailed specification of the content
according to methods 1 and 2, + assessment concept
of the task (situation, plan, interlocutors)
● Material: ELP checklist, assessment scale for the oral
(CEFR competence scales)
● Organisation: group divided into two (A2/B1), each
sub-group working in pairs
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Workshop 2 – marking
● Assessment (marking) of performance (oral production and
interaction) in terms of levels recorded on video
● Review of the oral assessment scale and the classification scale
• In plenary: viewing of the video, assessment (production phase,
then interaction) and rapid comparison of results
● In groups: discussion of findings, assessment strategies adopted,
skills required and assessment techniques and tools presented
● Points for discussion: specification and assessment – particularly of
oral performance – as training modules, having regard to the
training context: current and future specification and assessment
practices for oral production – any issues arising to be noted on flip
charts
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
(general specification)
Written production B2 – sample
● Can write summaries of articles on topics of general
interest
● Can discuss a topic in a composition or “letter to the
editor”, giving reasons for or against a specific point of
view
● Can write a short review of a film or book
• Can express in a personal letter different feelings and
attitudes and can report the news of the day making
clear what in my opinion are the important aspects of
an event
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
(detailed specification)
Written production B2 – sample
• Can write summaries of articles on topics of general
interest, following standard layout and paragraphing
conventions (< orthographic control B2)
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
(detailed specification)
Written production B2 – sample
• Theme related to the author's particular area or
more general subjects, in the form of an essay or
reader's letter presenting arguments for and against a
point of view, developing and arguing important points
with the aid of significant details and examples (< Extent
of vocabulary B2; development of themes B2)
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
(detailed specification)
Written production B2 – sample
● Can write a short review of a film or a book, varying
formulation to avoid frequent repetition and using
complex sentences (< vocabulary range B2;
general linguistic range B2)
Swiss Portfolio checklist
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Deconstruction of an activity descriptor
• Descriptor: “I can give and request personal
information”
• Deconstruction: “I can introduce myself; I can say
where I live: I can say my address (in the target
language); I can say how old I am, etc.; I can ask
someone what their name is; I can ask someone where
they live; I can ask someone how old they are, etc.”
(CEFR 9.2.2.1)
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Detailed specification (method 1 >>
Development of items I)
Jeans –
(from campus 2 (2002): French method. International key)
The story begins in California in 1848, during the gold rush. A prospector needed trousers that
stood up to water erosion. A young Bavarian, Oscar Levi-Strauss made him a pair of trousers
from serge, which he had bought in Nîmes to manufacture .... tents. In 1873, Levi-Strauss went
into partnership with a Nevada tailor called Jacob Davis.
Together, they gradually improved their trousers.
But it was in the early 1920s that blue jeans took their name – "blue" because of their new colour,
since Nîmes serge, or denim, which was ochre in colour, was now dyed indigo blue, and "jeans"
after the Italian port of Genoa, because the trousers of Oscar Levi-Strauss were very like those
worn by 16th century Genoese sailors.
Under their new name, blue jeans were ready for a new career. Hitherto they had been restricted
to western cowboys, workers and loggers, but they were now to be transformed into leisurewear.
The 1929 crash forced the American bourgeoisie to economise. They no longer spent their
vacations in Europe but on western ranches. There they discovered blue jeans and adopted them
for weekend wear.
Liberation was followed by the post-war boom. Throughout the world, jeans became an emblem
for young people of a new, free and anti-establishment life-style.
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
Detailed specification (Swiss method 1 >>
Development of items II)
I can understand the main points in short newspaper articles
about current and familiar topics.
I can guess the meaning of single unknown words from the
context thus deducing the meaning of expressions if the
topic is familiar.
I can skim short texts (for example news summaries) and
find relevant facts and information (for example who has
done what and where).
Training teachers to use the European
Language Portfolio
Former les enseignants à l’utilisation du
Porfolio européen des langues
I can understand the plot of a clearly structured story and
recognise what the most important episodes and events are
and what is significant about them.
I can understand a simple news item of immediate interest
and underline what appears to be the most important point.
I possess sufficient vocabulary to understand the majority of
texts on subjects related to my daily life, such as family,
hobbies and interests, work, travel and everyday events.
Assessment grid for oral performance
RANGE
ACCURACY
FLUENCY
INTERACTION
COHERENCE
C2
Shows great flexibility
reformulating ideas in
differing linguistic
forms to convey finer
shades of meaning
precisely, to give
emphasis, to
differentiate and to
eliminate ambiguity.
Also has a good
command of idiomatic
expressions and
colloquialisms.
Maintains consistent
grammatical control of
complex language,
even while attention is
otherwise engaged (e.g.
in forward planning, in
monitoring others'
reactions).
Can express him/herself
spontaneously at length
with a natural
colloquial flow,
avoiding or
backtracking around
any difficulty so
smoothly that the
interlocutor is hardly
aware of it.
Can interact with ease and skill,
picking up and using nonverbal and intonational
cues apparently
effortlessly. Can
interweave his/her
contribution into the joint
discourse with fully
natural turntaking,
referencing, allusion
making etc.
Can create coherent and
cohesive discourse
making full and
appropriate use of a
variety of
organisational
patterns and a wide
range of connectors
and other cohesive
devices.
C1
Has a good command of a
broad range of
language allowing
him/her to select a
formulation to express
him/ herself clearly in
an appropriate style on
a wide range of
general, academic,
professional or leisure
topics without having
to restrict what he/she
wants to say.
Consistently maintains a high
degree of grammatical
accuracy; errors are
rare, difficult to spot
and generally corrected
when they do occur.
Can express him/herself
fluently and
spontaneously, almost
effortlessly. Only a
conceptually difficult
subject can hinder a
natural, smooth flow of
language.
Can select a suitable phrase from a
readily available range of
discourse functions to
preface his remarks in
order to get or to keep the
floor and to relate his/her
own contributions
skilfully to those of other
speakers.
Can produce clear,
smoothly-flowing,
well-structured
speech, showing
controlled use of
organisational
patterns, connectors
and cohesive
devices.
B2
Has a sufficient range of
language to be able to
give clear descriptions,
express viewpoints on
most general topics,
without much conspicuous searching for
words, using some
complex sentence
forms to do so.
Shows a relatively high degree
of grammatical control.
Does not make errors
which cause misunderstanding, and can
correct most of his/her
mistakes.
Can produce stretches of
language with a fairly
even tempo; although
he/she can be hesitant
as he or she searches
for patterns and
expressions, there are
few noticeably long
pauses.
Can initiate discourse, take his/her
turn when appropriate and
end conversation when he
/ she needs to, though he
/she may not always do
this elegantly. Can help
the discussion along on
familiar ground
confirming comprehension, inviting others in,
etc.
Can use a limited number of
cohesive devices to
link his/her
utterances into
clear, coherent
discourse, though
there may be some
"jumpiness" in a
long contribution.