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Enhancing Language Skills at Pre-Basic Level: CEFR Alignment and Innovative Practices

Innovations and challenges in aligning with the CEFR at the Pre-Basic level are explored in this study. The focus is on achieving language competencies in reading, vocabulary enrichment, writing, speaking, and listening. Strategies such as bottom-up and top-down approaches, integrative units, and various testing methods are discussed. The implementation framework includes online quizzes, in-class activities, and final exams to assess students' language proficiency. The goal is to enhance students' ability to understand, use, and communicate in a new language effectively.

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Enhancing Language Skills at Pre-Basic Level: CEFR Alignment and Innovative Practices

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  1. Aligning with the CEFR at the Pre- Basic Level – Innovations and Challenges Galina Gordishevsky, Efrat Harel, Adi Gafni Kibbutzim College of Education H-INET International Spring Conference 27 February 2018 Tel Aviv University

  2. Can-do statements of the CEFR in the syllabus Name of Domain Can-Dos Students can understand short and relatively simple texts. Reading Students will enrich their everyday and academic vocabulary. Vocabulary Students can write simple phrases and sentences about familiar topics. Writing Students can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and phrases. Students can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have and do. Speaking Students can follow straightforward short talks on familiar topics provided these are delivered in clearly articulated standard speech Listening 2

  3. Have we achieved these purposes? Name of Domain Reading Can-Dos Students can understand short and relatively simple texts. YES Students will enrich their everyday and academic vocabulary. YES Vocabulary Students can write simple phrases and sentences about familiar topics. YES Writing Students can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and phrases. YES Students can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have and do. ?? Speaking Students can follow straightforward short talks on familiar topics provided these are delivered in clearly articulated standard speech. YES Listening 3

  4. Implementation of this framework • Bottom-up as well as top-down strategies • Integrative units • Testing • Contributions and limitations 4

  5. Bottom-up as well as top-down strategies • The starting point: listing the language topics and skills which should be covered in the course, for example sentence structure, parts of speech; ways of learning new words, eye-catching features. • Devoting some class time for direct explanations of, e.g., sentence structure in English and tense identification (in general)  Bottom-up • Exposing students to unfamiliar structures and words in written as well as audio excerpts  Top- down 5

  6. Integrative Units Structured as follows: • Text & questions • Vocabulary (text-related) • Language strategy, e.g. parts of speech, sentence structure, references • Short video on the topic • An opinion question • Vocabulary game: Quizlet / Kahoot 6

  7. Integrative units Products Used: • Quizlet • Quizlet Live • Ted-ed • Online Quiz • Padlet • Padlet: prefixes and suffixes 7

  8. Quizlet 8

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  12. Quizlet live 12

  13. 13

  14. 14

  15. Ted-ed 15

  16. Padlet 16

  17. Padlet – another example 17

  18. Testing • Involves a number of stages • A number of strategies are tested • Are all skills tested equally? Not yet… • Advantages and limitations • Students’ feedback 18

  19. Staged testing • Online quizzes and assignments throughout the semester • A number of quizzes during class time • Intermediary quiz in the format of the final • Final exam which consists of a few parts and tests a number of skills 19

  20. Online quizzes and assignments • Vocabulary for each text studied: Quizlet, Moodle quizzes • Connectors: completion, identification • Parts of speech and sentence structure • Writing: expressing an opinion on Padlet • Listening: a short YouTube episode/Ted lecture followed by comprehension questions and opinion questions - writing 20

  21. In-class quizzes • Vocabulary – translation, sentence completion, finding synonyms, at a later stage: matching a word to its explanation in English • Connectors – sentence completion • Parts of speech and sentence structure 21

  22. Intermediary quiz (IQ) & final exam (FE) Each consists of three parts: • Short academic text ( IQ: 400-500 words FE: 700-800 words ) • Vocabulary: synonyms from the text • Connectors 22

  23. To sum up: type of testing / domain tested Name of Domain Can-dos / Type of quiz Students can understand short and relatively simple texts. Intermediary quiz – academic text 400-500 words, final exam – academic texts 700-800 words Reading Students will enrich their everyday and academic vocabulary. Online HW quizzes, in-class quizzes, intermediary quiz and final Vocabulary Students can write simple phrases and sentences about familiar topics. Online assignments – expressing opinion on Padlet, in-class quizzes – sentence completion Writing Students can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and phrases. Students can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have and do. Practiced in class, not tested this year, goal for the future Speaking Students can follow straightforward short talks on familiar topics provided these are delivered in clearly articulated standard speech Online TED/You-Tube assignments Listening 23

  24. Contributions Continuous testing • splits the grade into smaller components • triggers numerous repetitions • predictability -> alleviates stress • tests most of the skills, rather than only RC (vocabulary, reading, writing, listening) 24

  25. Limitations • Are all skills tested equally? Not yet… • Speaking is the most challenging skill at the lowest levels • Can A1 level students reach B1/B2 level within three/four semesters? 25

  26. Some feedback from our students • It seems that we were not the only people to enjoy this whole process; the students also seemed to enjoy studying and cooperating. • However, next time, a survey asking the students for detailed feedback should be distributed. 26

  27. From the students’ feedback: לכל םאתוהו תיתגרדה הרוצב הנבנ רמוחה הדימל לש השוחת שי רופישו " דואמ ורזע תונווקמה תולטמהו תיבה לוגרתלו דימתמה .. טעמכ םינחבה תא וטיעמה םייעובשב םעפ םידחפה " ! וכפה םירועישה תוכזב דוחייב הפשה תשיכרל םימרותו םיניינעמל , םיריש ") " • . תומרה ירועיש " • רמוחה תנבהל בוהאל יתלחתה תילגנא " • תוהק ( רועישב תויוליעפה 27

  28. Thank you 28

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