Volume2

https://doi.org/10.37546/JALTSIG.CEFR2

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

 

 

 

 

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A warm welcome to issue no. 2 of the CEFR Journal – Research and Practice. In a time before COVID-19, we had hoped to be introducing this brand new, hot off the digital press 2nd volume of the journal at the EALTA conference in Budapest (including a CEFR Special Interest Group (SIG) meeting still to go ahead online, see contribution on The EALTA | UKALTA ‘Roadmap’ conference below). However, everything turned out more than just a little differently.

It pains us to have to start off with some incredibly sad news. This issue is dedicated to Tim Goodier—a member of our Editorial Advisory Board (EAB)—who has been taken from us, suddenly, and wholly unexpectedly in late March. But not before he reliably and amicably as ever provided a review for the forthcoming issue no. 3—due later in 2020. Please take a look at what Brian North—a CEFR Journal EAB member himself and a good friend and former colleague of Tim’s at Eurocentres—has to say, immediately following this editorial: In memory of Tim Goodier.

While edition #1 featured invited articles exclusively, this issue began from a Call for Abstracts up until November 2019 resulting in an impressive number of responses. Most were asked to submit a draft. Due to the interest in the call for submissions and, more importantly, the quality of most of the drafts submitted in early 2020, we decided to publish two issues in 2020. There has been a lot of development; largely, good and positive. We are slowly but surely waking up to the splendidly fluid realities of running an international academic journal. We, the editorial team, are loving every minute of it. The authors, our tirelessly working EAB, journal editorial and proofreading teams, and the ‘layout guy’ (Malcolm Swanson) have outdone themselves to make #2 happen. A ginormous thank you to you all!

 

Our attempts to build a community of scholars have been a huge focus of our. We have been fortunate enough to see a lot of interest in our newly published journal. We have been able to further translate that interest into more people getting involved and contributing in one manner or another. Our common aim is to be working together and to support one another in furthering this journal. The editorial team is truly privileged to be working with so many and such excellent folk. 

 

We are hoping to mold the journal into a platform for exchanging best practice, state-of-the-art research, news on current topics, and viewpoints on developments in the field. This is what the CEFR Journal should be all about: We aim to create a bottom up platform for all involved in the many facets of working with the CEFR, other frameworks, and portfolios. Ideally the journal is a platform enabling everybody to grow and to learn, and a platform that is as transparent as can be. Our editorial team has worked diligently with authors by helping, aiding, and guiding them through the process of using the reviewer feedback, improving, and finalizing their texts. Doing this in a supportive and constructive fashion has been our emphasis. We pride ourselves on the large amounts of positive feedback from authors in that regard. 

 

Still, we have managed to be as academically rigorous, upholding quality standards in our screenings, as running a double-blind peer reviewed journal demands. See for yourselves, we have been able to compile a diverse array of contributions in this issue. And we are hopeful you will find them as stimulating a read as the contributions featured in #1. 

We have grouped contributions to the CEFR Journal into one of these three categories: (1) Articles, (2) Reports, and (3) News.

We are kicking off the ‘Articles’ in #2 with a debate article:
Trolls, unicorns and the CEFR: Precision and professionalism in criticism of the CEFR, by Brian North (co-author of the CEFR and CEFR Companion Volume) is likely to attract the attention of many. Some are going to find it controversial. And that is precisely what we would like it to be: a talking point. Should you find yourself having (strong) opinions about the views being voiced in this article, feel free to get in touch with us: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We are more than happy to consider publishing letters to the editors or even a rebuttal. Sparking a lively, and above all constructive, debate would be a perfect accompaniment to the official launch of the CEFR Companion Volume (CEFR/CV). We would like to keep the format of kicking off our journal with a debate article for future issues whenever appropriate and possible.

Next, Marina Perevertkina (Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia), Alexey Korenev (Lomonosov Moscow State University), and Maria Zolotareva (Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia), explore the possibilities mediation offers for raising awareness among language teacher trainees: Developing classroom mediation awareness and skills in pre-service language teacher education.

Then, under ‘Reports’ we feature work in progress reports and other texts giving insights into the current affairs of research projects, etc.

 

In a first progress report of a large-scale study Maria Stathopoulou (Hellenic Open University | National Technical University of Athens) examines whether descriptors for written mediation are fit for purpose in the context of assessment: The new CEFR descriptors for the assessment of written mediation: Exploring their applicability in a local context in an effort towards multilingual testing. Read about what this extensive study of Greek language education experts and teachers (2018-2019) reveals and what conclusions may be drawn, particularly from a language tester’s perspective. The elicited data allows for further investigations into the correlations between quantitative and qualitative results. While some of the conclusions drawn are fairly bold, the matter of multilingual/plurilingual assessment is something worthy of further examination. We at the CEFR Journal would welcome articles that present relevant research in this area.

Charis-Olga Papadopoulou (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) takes another fresh look at portfolio practice: Promoting reflection in initial foreign language teacher education: The use of the EPOSTL revisited. This is particularly noteworthy in the context of The EALTA | UKALTA ‘Roadmap’ conference discussed later. Repeatedly, at the conference, experts and attendants called for an involvement of teacher trainees with practice in the CEFR, the CEFR/CV, and the European Language Portfolio (ELP).

As part of the ‘News’ section, we offered SIGs with a focal interest in the CEFR the opportunity to advertise and present their work. In the future, news from research projects, working groups, and/or individuals are also going to be welcome here.

Carmen Peresich (ÖSD | Universität Klagenfurt) introduces the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) CEFR SIG.
This is followed by Neus Figueras’ (University of Barcelona) introduction of the work of the European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) CEFR SIG.
Maria Gabriela Schmidt (Nihon University) and Morten Hunke (g.a.s.t. | TestDaF-Institut) round off the presentation of SIGs by introducing the CEFR and Language Portfolio (LP) SIG of the Japan Association for Language Teaching.

The last piece of news introduces the The EALTA | UKALTA ‘Roadmap’ conference: The CEFR: a road map for future research and development—meeting overview. Fergus O’Dwyer (Marino Institute of Education), Morten Hunke (g.a.s.t. | TestDaF-Institut), and Maria Gabriela Schmidt (Nihon University), in liaison with some of the conference organizers, thought it would be a good idea to supplement the official report—see link inside the text. Were you to find topical issues, important discussions omitted, or you were to wish to add contradicting or complimentary views of the goings on, we would warmly welcome further discussion of these in future issues of the CEFR Journal. Please contact us at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We would love to hear from you and get the debate going.

Finally, we have a new Call for Abstracts out. Due to current necessities and demand, we are looking to give your experiences with online, remote, and e-learning in conjunction with the CEFR, the CEFR/CV, or portfolio work the spotlight it deserves. Over these past few months, many practitioners have been accruing valuable best practice experiences. We would like to offer a forum to share such valuable insights in future volumes. We are looking for abstracts until 30 November 2020 at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

—Tokyo (Japan) & Bochum (Germany), June 2020

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