CC BY
23Педагогические науки
УДК 372.881:111.1
SOME PECULIARITIES OF USING CEFR IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING
I.A. Khajiyeva1, F. Adambaeva2
Abstract
As English is the key language in economy, society, education, and industry, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education of Uzbekistan has undertaken an initiative to align English Language programs nationwide with the CEFR. This article intends to describe what is CEFR itself, its structure, how it works and how to integrate it into a language classroom and benefits of using it.
Keywords: CEFR, assessment, language levels, communication skills, competence, individualized, language skills, self-assessment, language-related.
People have been learning, teaching, and assessing languages for centuries. In this long history, there have been as many different ways of teaching as there have been ways of describing levels of language learning and assessment. What may be an intermediate level in one country may be an upper-intermediate level in another. Levels may vary even among institutions in the same area.
In order to facilitate both teaching and learning, we need a way to specify what our learners are able to do at certain levels. As teachers, we also need to know how these levels can guide our teaching and the way we select course books and resources. In short, we need a common language by which we can describe language learning, teaching, and assessment. In most countries there is general agreement that language learning can be organized into three levels: basic/beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Reflecting this, the Council of Europe developed the Common European Framework of References for Languages to establish international standards for learning, teaching, and assessment for all modern European languages. The CEFR is also the result of a need for a common international framework for language learning which would facilitate co-operation among educational institutions in different countries. It was also hoped that it would provide a sound basis for the mutual recognition of language qualifications and help learners, teachers, course designers, examining bodies and educational administrators to situate their own efforts within a wider frame of reference.
Since its publication in 2001, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) has had a wide-ranging impact on the teaching and learning of languages around the world. Many ministries of education, local education authorities, educational institutions, teachers' associations, and publishers use the CEFR, and it will continue to have an impact for many years to come.
In a short time after the decree of the President "On measures of further improvement of the learning foreign languages" on December 10, 2012 Uzbekistan also accepted the CEFR as a nation-wide educational standard of reference for learning, teaching and assessment of foreign languages in order to strengthen the communication skills and international effect of future Uzbekistan specialists in all fields [1]. As
1Хажиева Ирода Адамбаевна - кандидат филологических наук, зав. кафедрой «Гуманитарных-социальных дисциплин», Ургенчский филиал Ташкентского университета информационных технологий, Узбекистан.
2Адамбаева Феруза Рустамбековна - ассистент кафедры «Гуманитарных-социальных дисциплин», Ургенчский филиал Ташкентского университета информационных технологий, Узбекистан.
YHeHbiH XXI BeKa • 2016 • № 3-2 (16)
English is the key language in economy, society, education, and industry, the Ministry of Higher and Secondary Education of Uzbekistan has undertaken an initiative to align English Language programs nationwide with the CEFR.
The Common European Framework describes what a learner can do at six specific levels: Basic User (A1 and A2); Independent User (B1 and B2); Proficient User (C1 and C2). These levels match general concepts of basic, intermediate, and advanced and are often referred to as the Global Scale. For each level, the full CEFR document complements this by describing in depth [2]:
- Competencies necessary for effective communication;
- Skills and knowledge related to language learning and competencies;
- Situations (people, place, time, organization, etc.) and contexts (study, work, social, tourism, etc.) in which communication takes place.
If you choose to use the CEFR as a reference point for your classroom, here are some of the benefits related to using a common framework: Teachers have access to a meaningful and useful point of reference that is understood globally and that informs their decisions on measuring language knowledge and skills; teachers receive a detailed description of learning, teaching, and assessing languages, how learners compare to a set of competencies, and how they carry out communicative tasks; teachers and learners move toward specific levels and specific goals of those levels; teachers may want to select teaching materials (course books and resources) that are referenced to the CEFR; CEFR levels provide an indication of performance and ability to function in communicative contexts in a foreign language; there are no requirements in the CEFR; it is a framework of reference. It is up to the teacher and learner to plot a course for language development. The CEFR does not tell them what to do or how to do it. R views users and learners of a language as members of society who may wish to accomplish tasks in a given set of circumstances, in a specific environment and within a particular field of action. These tasks are of course not exclusively language-related. While acts of speech occur within language activities, these activities form part of a wider social context, which alone is able to give them their full meaning.
One of the main concerns of teachers and learners is how long it takes to reach each level. At first glance, the CEFR appears to be like a staircase with each step the same distance from the next (A1 to A2 to B1 to B2, etc.). This might seem to indicate that each step or level should be achieved in an equal amount of time. But learning a language is like climbing a mountain: the ascent gets harder the higher you climb. It does not take the same amount of time to reach each level. A principle reason for this is that as the learner progresses with the language, he or she needs to acquire a larger range of language knowledge and competencies. Teachers are of course aware of this and understand that the language learning process is a continual and very individualized one. Because no two learners develop their language skills in the same way or at the same pace, it is difficult to define the exact amount of time needed to reach each level.
The Association of Language Testers of Europe (ALTE), whose members have aligned their language examinations with the CEF, provides guidance on the number of guided teaching hours needed to fulfill the aims of each CEFR level [3]:
AllApproximately 90 - 100 hours
A2 Approximately 180 - 200 hours
B1 {Approximately 350 - 400 hours
B2 Approximately 500 - 600 hours
C1 Approximately 700 - 800 hours
C2 Approximately 1,000 - 1,200 hours
Guided teaching hours are the hours during which the learner is in a formal learning context such as the classroom. The number of hours needed for different learners varies greatly, depending on a range of factors such as: age and motivation, background, amount of prior study and extent of exposure to the language outside the classroom, amount of time spent in individual study. As the teachers of foreign language how can we help our students to learn better? However, at the center of the learning process and the framework it is the learner. It is important that learners understand what the framework means to them so that they can use self-assessment and learner autonomy to become more effective learners inside and outside the classroom.
As Pearson Longman points out Great Teachers Inspire - Great Teachers Motivate. Inspired and motivated learners take control of their learning and become more effective autonomous learners [3]. Teachers play an incredibly important role in the lives of our learners, because earners view their teachers as the source of inspiration and knowledge. Through learner training we can help learners understand how they learn and how they can acquire useful tools that will enhance their progress. Linking teaching to the CEFR is a very effective way of achieving this. A clear proficiency framework provides a context for learning that can help learners to orient themselves and set goals. It is a basis for individualizing learning, as for each learner there is an optimal level at which they should be working. It allows teaching to focus on the strengths and weaknesses which are helping or hindering learners. In conclusion we can say that it enables a shared understanding of levels, facilitating the setting of realistic learning targets for a group, and relating outcomes to what learners can do next - successfully perform a particular job, or pursue university studies using the language, and so on.
References:
1. The Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Number 1875 of December 10, 2012 "On measures of further improvement of the learning of foreign languages". -T.: 2012.
2. The full Common European Framework document (in English): www.coe.int
3. Pearson Longman CEF companion website: www.longman.com
© IA Khajiyeva, F. Adambaeva, 2016
UDC 372.881:111.1
НЕКОТОРЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ СЕБЯ В ИНОСТРАННОМ ЯЗЫКЕ
И.А. Хажиева, Ф.Р. Адамбаева
Аннотация: Английской язык является ключевым языком в экономике, обществе, образовании и промышленности, Министерство высшего и среднего специального образования Республики Узбекистан выступил с инициативой, чтобы выровнять программы английского языка по всей стране с CEFR. Эта статья намерена описать то, что само по себе CEFR, его структура, как он работает и как интегрировать его в языковой школе и преимущества его использования.
Ключевые слова: CEFR, оценка, уровни языка, коммуникативные навыки, компетентность, индивидуализированное, языковые навыки, самооценки, умение, связано с языком.
© И.А. Хажиева, Ф.Р. Адамбаева, 2016
