Transcript Working with the Common European Framework

Working with the Common
European Framework
Cork & Dublin
May 21st & 22nd 2009
Plan of the workshop
 What is the CEFR? What are its contents?
What other resources are linked to it?
 How can schools use it:
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to establish a levels system?
to produce their curriculum and syllabi?
to influence teaching?
to assess progress, achievement and
proficiency
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What are these?
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The Common European Framework
The Common Reference Scale
The descriptor scales
Europass
European Language Portfolios
The Can do statements
The Portfolio checklists
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The result of 30 year’s work
 1971 – “a unit-credit scheme for Europe”
 Functions and notions / Threshold levels /
Needs analyses / Learner autonomy /
Communicative methodology
 1991 – “coherence and transparency in
language learning and teaching”
 A Common Framework of Reference / A
European Language Portfolio
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Milestones
 1997 – “Education for democratic citizenship”
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Declaration of language rights
Promotion of labour mobility
Adoption of first draft of Framework
Pilot projects for European Language Portfolios
 2000 – “Towards a plurilingual, pluricultural
society”
 European Year of Languages 2001
 Launch of Portfolios and revised Framework
 A Guide for setting language policies
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Multilingual Europe
 500 different languages used in London
 29 African languages spoken in the Canary
Islands
 10% of the population of France doesn’t have
French as the mother tongue
 19 linguistic minorities are recognised in
Romania
 What about Cork?
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The CEF – aims
 To make it easier for practitioners to tell
each other and their clientele what they
wish to help learners to achieve and how
they attempt to do so.
 To reflect on what we can do to help
ourselves and other people to learn a
language better
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The principles behind the CEF
 It’s not prescriptive:
 “we do not set out to tell practitioners what to do, or
how to do it”
 It’s not neutral:
 The CEF “supports methods which help learners build
up attitudes, knowledge and skills they need to:
 Become more independent in thought and action
 Be more responsible and co-operative in relation to other
people”
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The contents of the cef 1
 A definition of communication
 = reception / production / interaction / mediation
 A strategic definition of communicative
competence
 = being able to carry out activities and processes for
the production and reception of texts
 = being able to construct discourse to fulfil tasks in
the domain of social existence
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The Contents of the CEF 2
 Chapters
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Common Reference Levels
Language Use and the Language User / Learner
The User / Learner’s Competences
Language Learning and Teaching
Tasks and their role in language teaching
Language diversification and the curriculum
Assessment
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The contents of the cef 3
 The Common Scale of Reference is the
core of the cef.
 It describes user competence at 6 levels
 Basic user = A1 (Breakthrough) A2
(Waystage)
 Independent user = B1 (Threshold) B2
(Vantage)
 Proficient user = C1 (Effective proficiency) C2
(Mastery)
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This means a focus on learners
 “Language learning activities are based on the
needs, motivations, characteristics and
resources of learners:
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What will they need to do with the language?
What will they need to learn to do what they want?”
What makes them want to learn?
What sort of people are they?
What knowledge, skill and experiences do their teachers
possess?
 What access do they have to resources?
 How much time can they afford to spend?”
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Plurilingual competences
 A “unique and individual” competence
 An individual does not have a set of distinct and
separate competences
 but a plurilingual and pluricultural competence
which includes the sum of the linguistic
repertoire available
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Partial competences
 All knowledge of language is partial
 Any partial knowledge is also more than it
might seem
 Those who have learnt one language also
know a great deal about many other
languages
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Different kinds of competence 1
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communicative competence
 Linguistic competence
 Lexical / phonetic / grammatical
 Socio-linguistic
 Awareness of social norms
 Appropriate to social situations
 Pragmatic competence
 Functional use
 Discourse organisation
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Different kinds of competence 2
 Transversal competences
 Strategic competence
 Existential competence
 Ability to learn
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A – Basic
user
A1
B–
Independe
nt user
A2
B1
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B2
C–
Proficient
user
C1
C2
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Examples of descriptors 1
 A1 “Can understand and use familiar everyday
expressions and very basic phrases aimed at
satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can
introduce him / herself and can ask and answer
questions about personal details, such as where
he/ she lives, people he/she knows and things
he/she has. Can interact in a simple way
provided the other person talks slowly and
clearly and is prepared to help.”
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Characteristics of the descriptors
 They are all positive
 They are in a standard sequence – reception,
production, interaction, mediation
 They are flexible – the scale can be reduced to
three levels, or expanded to 12 or more
 They can be expressed as a scale for selfassessment = “I can….”
 They can be used as a basis for more
specialised scales
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The CEF isn’t just the scale
 It gives a detailed, coherent description of:
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Language use and language users
Competences and strategies
Processes of learning and teaching
Tasks
Diversification of the curriculum
Assessment
 In the appendices, there are more specialised
scales, “can do” statements, DIALANG
descriptors
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Specific descriptors
 Strategies
 Planning, checking and correcting, deduction, turntaking
 Avoidance and achievement strategies
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The descriptor scales 1
 There are 58 of them, divided into 41 scales of
activities and 17 describing competences:
 Communicative activities:
 Production, reception, interaction, mediation
 Competences
 Linguistic competence
 E.g. vocabulary range, grammatical accuracy
 Socio-linguistic competence
 Pragmatic competence
 E.g. turntaking, cohesion and coherence
 Strategic competence
 E.g. Asking for clarification,
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The descriptor scales 2
 User scales for self-assessment – all
positive
 Assessor scales, which include what
cannot be done at the level described
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Part 2 – The CEFR and the
curriculum / syllabus
 Curriculum – a general statement of the
institution’s values, approach and the way
these will be put into practice, plus an
overall view of the levels system
 Syllabus – the content of what is to be
done in a specific time frame
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 A. The school’s educational philosophy: what does this school believe
about learning a language?
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B. Outcomes: What should students be able to do, (CEFR Can Do statements)
and what do they need to know at any given level in order to do it? How does
this relate to exams used in the school?
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C. Methods, techniques: how is this learning to be achieved? What methods
and techniques should teachers use in their classrooms?
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D. Syllabus; schemes of work; progress: what language and micros-skills will
be learnt? How long is a level likely to take? How are specific periods of
teaching (week, month, term) planned? How are lessons planned? How are
learners informed about planning?
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E. Assessment: pre/during/post: How are learners placed in classes? How
and at what intervals is progress assessed? What assessment is there at the
end of the course? What form of certification is given?
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Linking level systems to the CEFR
 Step one – get to know the scales
 Step two – analyse what your present
level system is – what are your bottom and
top levels? How long do learners take to
reach them? How long are your courses?
 Step three - Compare your level system
with the CEFR levels – revise it to show
relation to CEFR
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CEFR resources and
curriculum/syllabus planning
 Curriculum – use the general reference
scale
 Syllabus – use a combination of
competence scales and activity scales
 Lesson planning, schemes of work – look
at Portfolio checklists
 Assessment – use the self-assessment
grid and the rater scales
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Getting to know the levels 1
 Can express him/herself fluently and
spontaneously, almost effortlessly. Only a
conceptually difficult subject can hinder a
natural, smooth flow of language.
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Levels 2
 Can keep going comprehensibly, even
though pausing for grammatical and
lexical planning and repair is very evident,
especially in longer stretches of free
production.
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Levels 3
 Uses basic sentence patterns with
memorised phrases, groups of a few
words and formulae in order to communicate limited information in simple
everyday situations.
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Levels 4
 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 comprehen-sion, inviting others
in, etc.
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Planning the syllabus
 For each class:
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CEFR level at beginning of course
Target level at end of course
Coursebook
Key « can do » statements for the course
 Reception, production, interaction
 Target competences
 « Identifiable results »
 Assessment procedures – self-assessment, tests,
exams
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Planning sequences of lessons 1
Strategy
domain
topic
communicative competence
linguistic, pragmatic, sociocultural
language activities
situation
Task
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Try to apply this
 Can write accounts of experiences, describing
feelings and reactions in simple connected text.
(B1 creative writing)
 Can give a clear presentation on a familiar topic,
and answer predictable or factual questions.
(B2 spoken production)
 Can understand phrases, words and
expressions related to areas of most immediate
priority (e.g. very basic personal and family
information, shopping, local area, employment)
[A1 listening].
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Where to find resources
Some web sites
 For the CEFR and Portfolios –
www.sprachenportfolio.ch and
www.coe.int/culture/portfolio
 For applications of Council of Europe
language policies – www.ecml.at
 For general language resources –
[email protected]
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