CEFR-Tools:CEFR and LP SIG -

CEFR Journal - Research and Practice

Volume 3 (October 2020)

Volume: 3

Date of publication: October 20, 2020

These articles are open access and licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) license.

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Table of Contents

Volume 3-1, page 6-20: Is a self-regulatory eELP the way forward? A reflection on two decades of achievements and failures of the ELP, Maria José Luelmo del Castillo (Rey Juan Carlos University) & Maria Luisa Pérez Cavana (Open University)

Volume 3-2, page 21-43: Initial stages of individual teacher CEFR-related classroom curriculum projects at Miyazaki International College, Rebecca Schmidt (Miyazaki International College) & Ellen Head (Miyazaki International College)

Volume 3-3, page 44-58: Learner perspectives: familiarization, knowledge, and perceptions of the CEFR, Gary Cook (Hiroshima Bunkyo University) & Yukari Rutson-Griffiths (Hiroshima Bunkyo University)

Volume 3-4, page 59-86: Investigating the difficulties for university learners of English in Japan of CEFR B1-level phrases, Takeshi Matsuzaki (Meiji University) & Kevin Mark (Meiji University)

Volume 3-5, page 87-97: Interpretation of the CEFR Companion Volume for developing rating scales in Cuban higher education, Claudia Harsch (University of Bremen), Ivonne de la Caridad Collada Peña (University of Informatics Sciences, Havana), Tamara Gutiérrez Baffil (University of Pinar del Río), Pedro Castro Álvarez (University of Informatics Sciences, Havana), & Ioani García Fernández (University of Cienfuegos)

Volume 3-6, page 98-103: Utilising pupils’ plurilingual skills: a whole-school approach to language learning in a linguistically diverse Irish primary school, Déirdre Kirwan (former principal of Scoil Bhríde Cailíní)

Volume 3-7, page 104-115: Developing an e-portfolio reflecting the concept of mediation for university students, Yukie Saito (Chuo University)

Volume 3-8, page 116-125: Classroom-based assessment of group discussion: Challenges and opportunities, Olga Y. Lankina (St. Petersburg State University) & Yulia V. Petc (St. Petersburg State University)

Volume 3-9, page 126-128: CEFR-CLIL & Action Research News, Maria Gabriela Schmidt

Editorial - Volume 3, Alexander Imig

The CEFR and the international CEFR-movement represent an achievement of the emerging world society. Built upon a foundation of long-range language policy by the Council of Europe (CoE), the CEFR was a European project first. But since then, the project has turned out to be a success story beyond Europe as well; as the volume of Byram and Parmenter (2012) impressively demonstrated. The perspective, however, of their book is in two aspects too narrow: 1) the case studies of countries offer only a brief outline for these particular countries; 2) the role of networks of teachers and researchers is only touched upon. A systematic analysis of networks could not be carried out within the limited framework of the book. Inquiring into both aspects is in fact the ‘raison d’être’ of the CEFR Journal. The first and second volume of this journal illustrate amply that practitioners in the field of language learning, teaching, and assessment also successfully act as researchers and have to offer valuable insights into approaches utilizing the CEFR in different organizations.

This third volume of the CEFR Journal continues this policy and starts with an important companion to the CEFR: the portfolio for languages; the European Language Portfolio (ELP). Maria José Luelmo del Castillo and Maria Luisa Pérez Cavana ask in the first text in the Article section: “Is a self-regulatory eELP the way forward?” and they offer a reflection on “two decades of achievements and failures of the ELP”. The next three articles are contributions from Japan. In the second article Rebecca Schmidt and Ellen Head analyze “Initial stages of individual teacher CEFR-related classroom curriculum projects at Miyazaki International College”, and in the third article Gary Cook and Yukari Rutson-Griffiths (Hiroshima Bunkyo University) introduce “Learner perspectives: familiarization, knowledge, and perceptions of the CEFR”. In the fourth article Takeshi Matsuzaki and Kevin Mark are “Investigating the difficulties for university learners of English in Japan of CEFR B1-level phrases”, which provides an in-depth study about the usage of the English Vocabulary Profile (EVP) and its application in Japan.

These longer articles are followed by shorter papers in the Report section, which cover a wide geographical range: First, Cuba. The five authors from Cuba and Germany present an “Interpretation of the CEFR Companion Volume for developing rating scales in Cuban higher education”, contributing valuable insights into a flexible and cooperative language policy project in relation to CEFR. The next report, by Déirdre Kirwan (Ireland), offers insights into an example of European linguistic diversity: “Utilising pupils’ plurilingual skills: a whole-school approach to language learning in a linguistically diverse Irish primary school” and shows how the CEFR is used to support schooling in the national languages while using the multilingual potential of modern Irish Society. Then, in a report from Yukie Saito (Japan), “Initial stages of individual teacher CEFR-related classroom curriculum projects at a liberal arts university in Japan”, the author exemplifies how an individual teacher can align different skills to be acquired to the CEFR. The last article from Russia, by Olga Lankina and Yulia Petc, showcases “Classroom-based assessment
of group discussion”. It features the “challenges and opportunities” of successful group discussions, including the complex question of how effective group discussions can be evaluated.

Finally, in the News section three pieces of news are reported on: (1) the CEFR & CLIL Symposium/ Conference on 23-25 October 2020 (online), (2) a new research project by the SIG – featuring a Call for Collaboration, and (3) the success and outcome of a research project by members of the SIG, recently published with Springer.

Thank you to all contributors, reviewers, proofreaders and the entire editorial team. I wish for insightful reading.

— Nagoya (Japan), September 2020

Reference
Byram, Michael & Lynne Parmenter. 2012. The Common European Framework of Reference: The globalisation of language policy. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

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(Update February 25th, 2023 MGS)

Volume3