- •Using the electronic version
- •Bookmarks
- •Moving around the text
- •Finding a word or phrase in the text
- •Using the hyperlinks in the text
- •Copying the text
- •Printing the text
- •CONTENTS
- •PREFATORY NOTE
- •NOTES FOR THE USER
- •SYNOPSIS
- •1 The Common European Framework in its political and educational context
- •1.2 The aims and objectives of Council of Europe language policy
- •1.4 Why is CEF needed?
- •1.5 For what uses is CEF intended?
- •1.6 What criteria must CEF meet?
- •2 Approach adopted
- •2.1.1 The general competences of an individual
- •2.1.2 Communicative language competence
- •2.1.3 Language activities
- •2.1.4 Domains
- •2.1.5 Tasks, strategies and texts
- •2.3 Language learning and teaching
- •2.4 Language assessment
- •3 Common Reference Levels
- •3.1 Criteria for descriptors for Common Reference Levels
- •3.2 The Common Reference Levels
- •3.4 Illustrative descriptors
- •Communicative activities
- •Strategies
- •3.5 Flexibility in a branching approach
- •3.7 How to read the scales of illustrative descriptors
- •4 Language use and the language user/learner
- •4.1 The context of language use
- •4.1.1 Domains
- •4.1.2 Situations
- •4.1.3 Conditions and constraints
- •4.4.2 Receptive activities and strategies
- •4.4.4 Mediating activities and strategies
- •4.5.1 Planning
- •4.5.2 Execution
- •4.5.3 Monitoring
- •4.6.2 Media include:
- •5 The user/learner’s competences
- •5.1 General competences
- •5.1.1 Declarative knowledge
- •5.1.2 Skills and know-how
- •5.2.3 Pragmatic competences
- •6 Language learning and teaching
- •6.1 What is it that learners have to learn or acquire?
- •6.1.3 Plurilingual competence and pluricultural competence
- •6.1.4 Variation in objectives in relation to the Framework
- •6.4 Some methodological options for modern language learning and teaching
- •6.4.1 General approaches
- •6.5 Errors and mistakes
- •7 Tasks and their role in language teaching
- •7.1 Task description
- •7.2 Task performance
- •7.2.1 Competences
- •7.2.2 Conditions and constraints
- •7.2.3 Strategies
- •7.3.1 Learner competences and learner characteristics
- •7.3.2 Task conditions and constraints
- •8.2 Options for curricular design
- •8.2.2 From the partial to the transversal
- •8.3 Towards curriculum scenarios
- •8.3.1 Curriculum and variation of objectives
- •8.3.2 Some examples of differentiated curriculum scenarios
- •8.4.1 The place of the school curriculum
- •8.4.3 A multidimensional and modular approach
- •9 Assessment
- •9.1 Introduction
- •9.2.2 The criteria for the attainment of a learning objective
- •9.3 Types of assessment
- •9.3.3 Mastery CR/continuum CR
- •9.3.5 Formative assessment/summative assessment
- •9.3.6 Direct assessment/indirect assessment
- •9.3.7 Performance assessment/knowledge assessment
- •9.3.8 Subjective assessment/objective assessment
- •9.3.9 Rating on a scale/rating on a checklist
- •9.3.10 Impression/guided judgement
- •9.3.11 Holistic/analytic
- •9.3.12 Series assessment/category assessment
- •9.3.13 Assessment by others/self-assessment
- •General Bibliography
- •Descriptor formulation
- •Intuitive methods:
- •Qualitative methods:
- •Quantitative methods:
- •Appendix B: The illustrative scales of descriptors
- •The Swiss research project
- •Origin and Context
- •Methodology
- •Results
- •Exploitation
- •Follow up
- •References
- •The descriptors in the Framework
- •Document B1 Illustrative scales in Chapter 4: Communicative activities
- •Document B2 Illustrative scales in Chapter 4: Communication strategies
- •Document B3 Illustrative scales in Chapter 4: Working with text
- •Document B4 Illustrative scales in Chapter 5: Communicative language competence
- •Document B5 Coherence in descriptor calibration
- •Appendix C: The DIALANG scales
- •The DIALANG project
- •The DIALANG assessment system
- •Purpose of DIALANG
- •The DIALANG self-assessment scales
- •Source
- •Qualitative development
- •Translation
- •Calibration of the self-assessment statements
- •Other DIALANG scales based on the Common European Framework
- •Concise scales
- •Advisory feedback
- •References
- •Document C1 DIALANG self-assessment statements
- •Document C3 Elaborated descriptive scales used in the advisory feedback section of DIALANG
- •The ALTE Framework
- •The development process
- •Textual revision
- •Anchoring to the Council of Europe Framework
- •References
- •Document D1 ALTE skill level summaries
- •Document D2 ALTE social and tourist statements summary
- •Document D3 ALTE social and tourist statements
- •Document D4 ALTE work statements summary
- •Document D5 ALTE WORK statements
- •Document D6 ALTE study statements summary
- •Document D7 ALTE STUDY statements
- •Index
4 Language use and the language user/learner
Following the first three introductory and explanatory chapters, Chapters 4 and 5 now present a fairly detailed scheme of categories for the description of language use and the language user. In accordance with the action-oriented approach taken, it is assumed that the language learner is in the process of becoming a language user, so that the same set of categories will apply. There is, however, an important modification which must be made. The learner of a second or foreign language and culture does not cease to be competent in his or her mother tongue and the associated culture. Nor is the new competence kept entirely separate from the old. The learner does not simply acquire two distinct, unrelated ways of acting and communicating. The language learner becomes plurilingual and develops interculturality. The linguistic and cultural competences in respect of each language are modified by knowledge of the other and contribute to intercultural awareness, skills and know-how. They enable the individual to develop an enriched, more complex personality and an enhanced capacity for further language learning and greater openness to new cultural experiences. Learners are also enabled to mediate, through interpretation and translation, between speakers of the two languages concerned who cannot communicate directly. A place is of course given to these activities (section 4.4.4) and competences (sections 5.1.1.3, 5.1.2.2 and 5.1.4), which differentiate the language learner from the monolingual native speaker.
Question boxes. Readers will see that from this point on, each section is followed by a box in which the Framework user is invited: ‘to consider and where appropriate state’ the answers to one or more questions that follow. The alternatives in the phrase ‘need/be equipped/be required’ relate to learning, teaching and assessment respectively. The content of the box is phrased as an invitation rather than as an instruction in order to emphasise the non-directive character of the Framework enterprise. If a user decides that a whole area is not of concern, there is no need to consider each section within that area in detail. In most cases, however, we expect that the Framework user will reflect on the question posed in each box and take a decision one way or another. If the decision taken is of significance, it can be formulated using the categories and examples supplied, supplemented as may be found necessary for the purpose in hand.
The analysis of language use and the language user contained in Chapter 4 is fundamental to the use of the Framework, since it offers a structure of parameters and categorieswhichshould enable all those involved in language learning, teaching and assessment to consider and state in concrete terms and in whatever degree of detail they wish, what they expect the learners towards whom they undertake responsibilities to be able to do with a language, and what they should know in order to be able to act. Its aim is to be comprehensive in its coverage, but not of course exhaustive. Course designers, textbook
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