CEFR-Tools:CEFR and LP SIG -

In loving memory of our dear friend Jamie Dunlea, we dedicate this issue of the journal to his life and legacy. Jamie was a passionate advocate of the CEFR and a driving force in language testing and assessment. Jamie’s tireless dedication and invaluable contributions to the CEFR related work have left an indelible mark on this field, inspiring all to strive for excellence and innovation. Through this dedication, we celebrated Jamie’s profound impact and enduring legacy, ensuring that his vision and passion for the CEFR continue to shape and enrich language testing and assessment. This issue starts with the beautiful obituary Jamie’s close friend and colleague, Richard Spilby has written.

The CEFR/CV introduced a paradigm shift in education with the exploitation of the Action-oriented Approach (AoA) , which made it vibrant in the minds of its users and allowed them to feel confident in adapting and adopting its principles to their own educational contexts. The newly developed descriptors in relation to mediation, plurilingualism and other areas of competence further alleviated the use of the CEFR/CV in many contexts. The richness of this issue in terms of the diversity of topics and the range of languages covered demonstrates the powerful impact of the CEFR/CV across the world.

The article by Gregorio and Silveira takes curriculum alignment to the CEFR/CV to the level of pedagogical assessment including tools in line with AoA principles, presenting a comprehensive educational alignment in the Portuguese context. Curriculum revamp studies also originated from the practices initiated during the pandemic and deemed necessary for today’s education such as online interaction. Kerstin Pramstaller presents the action research she carried out with her students evaluating the online interaction the practices she transformed and transferred from the pandemic days to a hybrid mode of teaching she has adopted in the Austrian context. In her study aligning didactic audiovisual translation to the CEFR, Marga Navarrete has developed a new category of illustrative descriptors encompassing the didactic audio description competences, which are representative of mediation strategies for learners.

Foremost attention among alignment studies is given to linking assessment practices to the CEFR. A large scale exam linking example is the SMEEA Gaokao tests to the CEFR in China. Lloyd, Seed, Xu, and Hu reflect on the process of comparing the difficulty levels of six language tests in aligning them to the CEFR. They offer valuable insights and recommendations to those considering to embark upon a similar study. Rousoulioti, Ventouris, Olympia Blatsioti, and Tsalta, on the other hand, conducted research into a much more pedagogically oriented type of assessment, which is self-assessment. Their study confirmed the benefits of self-assessment attested by many other studies and demonstrated that self-assessment boosts student learning, motivation, metacognitive skills and contributes to learner autonomy.

Studies surrounding mediation come to the fore in this issue. Another article on mediation by Maarena Jimenez Naranjo, Navarrete, and Oaknin sets a sound example of designing tasks for a plurilingual learning environment to enhance overall Spanish language ability through spoken and written mediation tasks to be conducted in pairs or groups. A similar approach taken by Hehl and Laaredj-Campbell to improving language learning through mediation tasks involved the use of poetry, with an emphasis on the AoA. Learners’ engagement in formulating personal responses to the poems lead to enhanced proficiency in terms of range and intensity of the language used throughout the tasks.

The last two articles continue to explore mediation this time with a view to developing rating scales in relation to the CEFR/CV mediation scales and the related descriptors. While Berceruelo Pino, Diaz Cobo, Lopez Fernandez, and Romero Rodriguez report on the process of developing a rating scale aligned with the CEFR mediation descriptors for a high stakes proficiency exam in Spain, Harsch, Koval, Delgado-Osorio, and Harting present a study conducted to develop a rating scale adapting the CEFR mediation descriptors for an academic integrated writing assessment with a diagnostic purpose of providing feedback regarding academic preparedness.

This issue consists of examples of good practice in the area of CEFR alignment in line with the principles advocated by Aligning Language Education with the CEFR: A handbook (April, 2022), a product of a joint effort of the British Council, UKALTA, EALTA, and ALTE. The handbook promotes sound practice in CEFR alignment, starting from curriculum linking to linking of assessment tools. The studies following the procedures in the handbook will be shared at a conference in Barcelona on 18-19 October 2024. The conference organizers welcome all practitioners to share their experiences.

Ankara (Türkiye), January 2024

Download CEFR Journal - Volume 6 (issue)

Updated by June 30th, 2024 (MGS)

Volume6