FLP SIG NEWS
You find on this site information on upcoming JALT CEFR & LP SIG events:
Our Homepage: https://cefrjapan.net
The new JALT Homepage provides a HP (March 2021): https://jalt.org/groups/sigs/cefr-and-language-portfolio
Announcements
- A Practical Guide published
- new Kaken project CEFR, CEFR/CV and action research: Get involved!
Events in 2021
- May 14-16, 2021 PanSIG 2021 Online
- May 15th, 2021 CEFR & LP SIG Forum at PanSIG 2021
- August 20th, 2021 AR Workshop with Anne Burns
- November 2021, 12 -15 JALT International Conference
Events in 2021
PanSIG is an annual conference usually held in May, and organized by many of the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT). The conference brings together leading scholars and practitioners in language education from Japan, Asia, and throughout the world. It is meant to be a smaller, more intimate conference than the annual international JALT conference (which is held each fall), and is a place where SIG members can network with each other.
CEFR & LP SIG will take part at PanSIG 2021:
20th PanSIG 2021 Online
May 14th - 16th, 2021
Conference theme:
Local and Global Perspectives: Plurilingualism and Multilingualism
Homepage: https://pansig.org/
Conference online location: https://pansig2021.eventzil.la/
There are 9 CEFR-related presentations (details see below):
Saturday, May 15th, 2021
09:30 - 09:55 on enhancing self-esteem,
13:00 – 13:25 on Online language exchanges,
14:30 – 16:00 SIG Forum,
14:30 – 14:55 on Placement test,
16:00 – 16:45 on Video letters
Saturday, May 16th 2021
09:00 – 09:45 on Writing
10:30 – 10:55 on Self-access
11:30 – 12:25 on Netflix
Plenary Speaker is Jane Willis on task based language teaching (Saturday 15th at 5 pm)
Panel Discussion on the conference theme
Local and Global Perspectives: Plurilingualism and Multilingualism
with
Fumiko Kurihara, Tomokazu Ishikawa, Paula Martinez-Sires and Alexandrea Shaitan
(Sunday 16th at 3:15 pm)
CEFR & LP SIG Forum at PanSIG 2021
Theme
A CEFR-informed Action Research Model: Developing a research plan
Sat, May 15th, 14:30-16:00 JST
The JALT CEFR & LP SIG is currently supporting teacher-researchers through a collaborative Kaken research project entitled “Language Education reform using action research: Putting CEFR’s educational principles into practice”. During the Forum, project participants will share the research plans they designed using Stage 1 of a CEFR-focused Action Research Model (CARM) developed by the SIG. These plans were designed in part through collaboration facilitated during workshops held in the first year of the project. The SIG forum will be an opportunity to discuss Stage II, the implementation of the research plan which involves two aspects: the participants’ plan to (1) trial proposed solutions to their teaching-learning dilemma (i.e. the focus of their research plan), and (2) collect data to critically examine the effectiveness of this solution. Forum participants are encouraged to contribute to this ongoing collaborative process to help move these research projects forward, as well as reflect on their current practice and consider how the CEFR and CARM might be utilized in their own contexts. The forum will conclude with a discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the CARM model and the goals for the second year of the KAKEN project.
There are 7 more CEFR or SIG members related presentations at PanSIG 2021:
SAT 09:30 – 09:55
Takanori Omori, How to Enhance Japanese University Students’ Self-Esteem. - An Attempt on Self-Affirmation in Written Form - Sat, May 15th, 09:30 ~ 09:55 JST
Nowadays, a growing number of institutions and educators in English Language teaching (ELT) has been highlighting its psychological aspect. Particularly, self-affirmation methods that contain psychological effects on students’ academic achievement are noticeable in a recent study (Cohen et al, 2009). The purpose of this study is to investigate whether a regular self-affirmation in written-form can improve the degree of self-esteem, specifically, Global Self-Esteem (GSE) and Foreign Language Self-Esteem (FLSE). The research design is quantitative research using online surveys as the main instrument. The participants of this study were 55 university students who were from three different faculties of a private university in Tokyo. The research examined and compared their GSE and FLSE of two experimental groups and a control group at the beginning and the end of the semester. Whereas self-affirmation in written form was mandatory for the experimental groups in every class, the control group was not asked to do any self-affirmation. The results showed that the students’ self-esteem in the experimental groups was boosted by self-affirmation in written-form to some extent. The findings of this study will benefit numerous educators and students since the enhancement of students’ self-esteem is a profound source for their language learning.
SAT 13:00 – 13:25
Yukie Saito, Possibility and Challenges of Online Language Exchanges Sat, May 15th, 13:00 ~ 13:25 JST
The spread of Covid-19 has made it difficult for university students to study and travel abroad, which may affect students’ motivation to learn English negatively. Hoping to motivate first-year Japanese students to learn English in a class of a private university in Japan, I conducted five online language exchanges with the Japanese students and university students learning Japanese in the U.S. The Japanese students wrote a journal about the contents and feedback in English after every exchange. After the five exchanges, the students also answered a questionnaire survey with closed and open questions. The closed questions were made in terms of oral comprehension, production, and interactions from CEFR Companion Volume (Council of Europe, 2020), cultural understanding, foreign language anxiety, motivation, and pragmatic competence. The results showed that most of the students were able to improve their listening and speaking skills, understand different cultures, reduce foreign language anxiety, be motivated to learn English, and maintain a conversation. The open question also showed their positive opinion toward the exchanges. In the presentation, I will discuss the possibility and challenges of online language exchanges for the new normal era after Covid-19 based on analyzing the students’ journals and the questionnaire survey.
SAT 14:30 – 16:00 SIG Forum
SAT 14:30 – 14:55
Bradley Irwin / Diego Oliveira, Creating and Implementing an Online Placement Test, Sat, May 15th, 14:30 ~ 14:55 JST
This short presentation will describe the experience of moving from a third-party, paper-based English proficiency placement test to an original online version created by the presenters. We will discuss practical approaches to designing a placement test for first and second year undergraduate English language learners that aligns with CEFR bands (A1-B2/C1) and its implementation using Google Forms. The test consisted of 60 multiple choice questions covering listening skills (true/false statements, specific/global comprehension), vocabulary and grammar understanding (sentence completion, word definitions, synonyms, etc) and reading comprehension skills (analyzing content of an advertisement, short and long passage comprehension and interpretation). Students were instructed to complete the test within 90 minutes. Because our test included listening, vocabulary, grammar, and reading items, we will be able to give a comprehensive overview of the process for creating audio content and including appropriate target language. We will describe the collaborative challenges of creating a test entirely online and give advice for others who are interested in creating their own placement tests. This presentation will be of particular interest to anyone who wishes to learn about creating an online CEFR-aligned placement test. It will also be valuable for educators who are interested in conducting online testing using Google Forms.
SAT 16:00 – 16:45, Zoom 11, Video letter
Nami Takase, Video Letter Exchange to Oral Development, Sat, May 15th, 16:00 ~ 16:45 JST | Zoo 11
Engaging students in online exchange has numerous positive effects; one is to keep students connected to the international community (Blake, 2000). This presentation focuses on how CEFR A1- to A2-level English learners engage in authentic communication with native English speakers through an online application during the pandemic as part of a two-month project. The purpose of this presentation is to share the project’s classroom practice and the effectiveness of its online communication exchange for speaking development and cultural understanding. In this project, university students learning English in Japan exchanged a video with students learning Japanese in the US. The main language used in the video was English. However, the topics included intercultural aspects, such as sharing stories about their favorite heroes. At the end of the project, the post-test speaking test showed increased gains in English learners’ fluency, accuracy, complexity, and lexical diversity, as the English learners may have picked up native terms from their video exchange partners. This presentation also provides feedback and comments from students from both countries and highlights issues that may arise during the project to assist future project organizers who are interested in conducting an international video exchange project.
SUN 09:00 – 09:45, Zoom 8, Writing
Bob Gettings, Teach it! Write! What We Can Learn from CEFR, Sun, May 16, 09:00-09:45 JST
Do our students write more than students used to 25 years ago? The internet and smartphones have changed the way that we communicate and interact in our daily lives - even with foreign languages. CEFR offers some insights into how we learn and can teach languages. The presenter will outline the changes in the CEFR Companion Volume (2020) descriptors and suggest practical ways to integrate them into teaching L2 writing. The Companion Volume updates and extends the original CEFR with new descriptors relevant to teaching writing - especially for the lower levels (pre-A1 to B1), as well as for online interaction, plurilingual/pluricultural competence, and mediation. The new descriptors for mediation offer insights into ways to use students’ L1 or other languages (L3, L4 . . .) in target language learning and assessment. The Companion Volume also continues to view students as active social agents in their own learning, to encourage an active learning approach, and to focus on what language learners "can do" - not on what they cannot. In particular, the presentation will focus on CEFR as related to CALL and extensive writing task design.
SUN 10:30 – 10:55, Zoom 8, Self-access
John Bankier, Adapting CEFR Can-dos to Self-access Learning, Sun, May 16, 10:30-10:55 JST
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) describes a six-point scale for language abilities/competencies as can-do statements. According to the University of Cambridge (2011), CEFR is frequently used as a planning tool for development of language learning textbooks, examinations, syllabuses and curricula. As well as allowing comparisons of different contexts and programs, when adapted, the can-do statements can clarify the goals and objectives of language curricula into clear and achievable competencies. This presentation will describe a process of aligning existing self-access centre (SAC) facilities to CEFR by adapting can-do statements. Facilities included multi-lingual conversation lounges, an English writing centre and a test-preparation consultation service staffed by students and faculty. I will explain the selection and adaptation of can-do statements and how this process led me to reconsider whether the SAC provided learners the best opportunities to develop their language skills and autonomy. While the pandemic prevented the project’s on-the-ground implementation in 2020, the planned next steps for dissemination of the can-do statements will be described. The presenter will also address the general benefits and challenges of aligning language learning curricula and self-access programs to frameworks like the CEFR.
SUN 11:30 – 12:25, Zoom 8, Netflix
Barry Condon, Netflix x CEFR: What should our students really be watching?, Sun, May 16, 11:30-11:55 JST
Recommending that students watch TV shows and films in their second language has long been common practice among educators. While all L2 exposure is to be encouraged, not all content is created equal. We may suggest that students watch a particular show or movie for a variety of readily apparent reasons such as general suitability, subject matter, and entertainment value while perhaps the most important factor that should be considered, the true level of language input, often remains oblique. This presentation will examine the results of a text analysis of a variety of television shows and films that are typically available to students in order to determine which content contains the most comprehensible input for learners across each level. Moreover, an explanation of the methodology behind the analysis will be presented, giving educators the tools to conduct similar analyses and to provide better-informed future recommendations.
Homepage: https://pansig.org/
Conference online location: https://pansig2021.eventzil.la/
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NEWS - GOOD NEWS - really GOOD news by July 2020: We are happy to announce the publication of our 4th book as a result of our kaken research project no. 16K02835:
Noriko Nagai, Gregory C. Birch, Jack Bower, Maria Gabriela Schmidt
CEFR-informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment: A Practical Guide.
Springer 2020. ISBN 9789811558931 (https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9789811558931).
See more details of the book on the special site here: A Practical Guide
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April 2020: The next Kaken JSPS research project for JALT CEFR & LP has been granted in April 2020! For the members of CEFR & LP SIG this is good news indeed.Why? - Because they have been explicitly included in the proposal with the title
「アクションリサーチの手法を用いた言語教育改善: CEFRの教育理念を参考にして」
in English “Language Education reform using action research: Consulting the CEFRs educational principles”.
There will be soon a special site and more detailed information!
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CEFR Journal - Research and Practice - Volume 4
Call for contributions/abstracts by December 1oth, 2020
For more details see here /publications or https://cefrjapan.net/journal
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Dear CEFR&LP SIG members,
CEFR&LP SIG (fomer FLP SIG) is looking forward to promote highstake research on CEFR-informed foreign language teaching in JAPAN and beyond.
The fourth Kaken research project was granted for our member and officer Alexander Imig. The last years brought intensified activities on international published editing volumes and conferences, the results of the second and third Kaken research projects. The fruits are visible now with the publication of the English Profile Studies volume 6 in September 2017.
The third Kaken project aimed for developing a hands-on tool kit for teachers for using the CEFR efficiently. The publication is almost ready. The new homepage (cefrjapan.net) will soon display results.
The CEFR&LP SIG Newsletter No. 31 (April 2021) is available see publications.
We are working in building a up a totally new homepage as a toolkit helping teachers to deal with the CEFR in their foreign language teaching. This has been harder than we tought but we are working continously on the new homepage and the CEFR tool-kit for teachers.
Our membership is continuously growing, so I really want to say thank you to all who supported FLP SIG, please support CEFR&LP SIG too.
Gabriela Schmidt (coordinator)
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December 19th, 2020 from 2 - 4 pm
CEFR & Action Research - A fresh new look at your teaching
This meeting will be a follow-up event to the CEFR & LP SIG Forum held online at the JALT 2020 International Conference.
The purpose is to give an introduction to our current KAKEN research project, which was granted in April 2020 (no. 20K00759) and entitled
Foreign Language Education Reform through Action Research -
Putting CEFR educational principles into practice
アクションリサーチの手法を用いた言語教育改善: CEFRの教育理念を参考にして.
We are looking for collaborators (go to the Kaken 5 homepage), and this meeting will be an opportunity for those who have shown an interest to share their thoughts on getting involved in the project and form working groups.
This meeting will bring together facilitators and collaborators, and we will start by giving a short introduction to the CEFR and our CEFR-informed AR Model. This will help researchers to decide their research focus, form groups, and receive guidance to start Stage 1 of the Action Research cycle - Putting together your research plan.
Each Action Research team will be provided with support and guidance to ensure that their research is conducted in a systematic way in relation to the AR literature and reflective of CEFR principles. The teams will be grouped thematically around six central themes:
(1) Designing a curriculum and / or course,
(2) Materials Development,
(3) Assessment,
(4) Learner autonomy and the European Language Portfolio,
(5) Classroom Implementation and
(6) other CEFR-related fields.
Please feel free to join us. No special skills are needed and whether you are a novice to the CEFR or Action Research, we will provide step-by-step support.
This would be a perfect start to know more about your own teaching!
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JALT 2020 in Tsukuba (November 20th – 23rd, 2020)
Communities for Teachers and Learners
CEFR & LP SIG related events at JALT 2020 ONLINE are:
Workshop on November 17th, 2020 (Tuesday) 19:30 - 20:30
Maria Gabriela Schmidt, Yukie Saito, Engel Villareal
Adapting can do descriptors to remote teaching
On November 20th, 2020 (Friday) CEFR & LP SIG Forum and AGM
19:45 - 20:45 CEFR & LP SIG Forum
Maria Gabriela Schmidt, Noriko Nagai, Gregory Birch, Jack Bower, Naoyuki Naganuma
Aligning CEFR to current practices - First steps for action research
- Identifying needs of learners and teachers / in the classroom -
20:45 - 21:15 CEFR & LP SIG AGM
Activity report for CEFR & LP SIG between November 2019 and November 2020 by all SIG officers:
Maria Gabriela Schmidt, Noriko Nagai, Gregory Birch, Jack Bower, Naoyuki Naganuma, Alexander Imig, Mark DeBoer
November 21st, 2020 (Saturday): CEFR & LP SIG related workshops and presentations
10:45 - 11:45 Colin Rundle, Koki Tomita, Tetsuko Fukawa Initiating a CEFR Alignment Project
11:55 - 12:20 Jean-Pierre Richard TOEIC L&R and CEFR-J Can-Do Self-Assessment Scores
12:50 - 13:50 Alexander Imig, Jim D'Angelo Academic Writing and Mediation – CEFR-informed
14:00 - 14:25 Tyson Rode, Patrizia M.J. Hayashi Steps to a Successful CEFR-Aligned Placement Test
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Symposium & Workshop on
Praxis of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment with CEFR & CLIL
See the details on the subpage CEFR & CLIL
The symposium was held from October 23rd to October 25th, 2020 online. Thank you for taking part in it!
hosted by Akita International University
Plenary speakers
Dr. Yuen Yi LO (University of Hong Kong)
Dr. Masashi Negishi (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies)
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Joint Webinar with BizCom SIG was held on August 20th, 2020 at 7 p.m. (Tokyo time, JST)
English as a lingua franca and the CEFR/CV
Held by Katrin Lichterfeld (Germany)
In spite of an increase in educational and in-company programmes, Japan is among the four countries (together with China, Russia and South Korea), where employers notice the highest gap between English skills required in the workplace and those available. What support could the CEFR Companion Volume (2018) and the use of BELF offer? Many consider these two topics as an enormous shift of paradigm for all the stakeholders involved. Some even think that the use of BELF is also an Anglo-western threat to Japanese norms of communication.
Katrin Lichterfeld will provide you with a kind of BELF toolbox to bridge the gap between theory and practice in this webinar. She will address how to deal with a societal need for global English and a lack of exposure to English in the daily lives of Japanese learners? Additionally, she will discuss activities can raise Japanese learner’s BELF awareness toward increasing their linguistic repertoire as well as intercultural communicative competence.
After working in the export department of a beverage group, Katrin Lichterfeld did an MA (Second language acquisition) and a CertIBET. She has been working as an in-company trainer (business communication skills and intercultural competence) in Germany for nearly two decades. She is also a participant of the EU-funded ENRICH project “English as a Lingua Franca practices for inclusive multilingual classrooms”.
(Article from 2019 of K. Lichterfeld ( https://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr19/business-english-as-a-lingua-franca).
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July 11th, 2020 (Saturday), 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.
JOINT EVENT with NAGANO (Shinshu) Chapter
The CEFR and the CEFR/CV from a practitioners’ point of view
The CEFR and its related tools and resources are a huge “jungle” in which many practitioners get lost. This impression of the CEFR was uncovered by a survey conducted by the CEFR SIG in 2014, with many respondents requesting a “CEFR-toolkit” to help teachers find their way through all the available CEFR resources. Providing this toolkit became the driving force behind a Kaken research project - Designing a support system for innovative CEFR-informed language education, which was conducted between 2016 and 2019.
Four main areas were identified for using the CEFR efficiently: 1) The philosophy of the CEFR, 2) Curriculum and course development, 3) Assessment and 4) Learner Autonomy and the language portfolio. We are pleased to announce the publication of CEFR-informed Learning, Teaching and Assessment – A practical guide, which will appear in bookstores this summer.
The aim of this presentation (and book) is to guide practitioners through this jungle of information by providing a compendium to each of the topics mentioned above and guidance to using the CEFR and its tools efficiently. This is the first time that such a CEFR guidebook has been published from practitioners for practitioners. This talk by the authors will give a hands-on introduction to the main areas of the CEFR and the CEFR/CV.
We are also pleased to announce our next Kaken research project: 「アクションリサーチの手法を用いた言語教育改善:CEFRの教育理念を参考にして」, Language education reform through action research: Consulting CEFR’s educational principles. Our goal is to provide teachers with support for conducting and publishing classroom-based research on an aspect of the CEFR. Consider this a formal invitation to get involved in the CEFR & LP SIG.
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Pan SIG in Niigata (May 30th and 31st, 2020) had been canceled, but
Pan SIG 2020 Online took placeon June 20th and 21st, 2020
See details at https://pansig.org/
CEFR & LP SIG hold a special SIG Forum on Saturday, June 20th, 2020 at 12:00 - 13:30
CEFR – TALK - A CEFR & LP SIG Special PanSIG Online Forum
This Forum is an open CEFR – Talk. CEFR & LP SIG members and anyone who is interested in the CEFR, the CEFR/CV and related topics are kindly invited to this lunchtime talk on the CEFR. There are various topics to share: First is the new research project (Kaken) on “Language Education reform using action research: Consulting the CEFRs educational principles” 「アクションリサーチの手法を用いた言語教育改善: CEFRの教育理念を参考にして」. We are looking for people getting involved using the CEFR and doing action research. Second, the recent development in remote emergency teaching could be an incentive to do research on online teaching and the CEFR & CEFR/CV, discussing and adapting for example related ‘Can Do’ descriptors. Third, other fields were CEFR & CLIL (conference in October), CEFR & tasks for teaching/assessment, CEFR & mediation, ... As format for the forum this could be a general talk (all) or with breakout sessions (thematically). The new normal opens up different pathways. Looking forward meeting people interested in the CEFR!
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with JALT BizCom SIG and ICLE SIG on
On Thursday, April 9th, 2020 was held the Webinar was a joint event
Mediation, interaction and pluricultural competence:How can the new CEFR help English teachers?
with Kerstin Waechter (Germany)
In this webinar, Kirsten Waechter will take a closer look at some new features of the revised CEFR framework for language learning and will explore to what extend it can help English teachers in their job. The new CEFR now reflects skills and competence a lot more detailed, allowing for better descriptions of competence and skills. Its new categories include pluricultural skills, mediation and a closer look at functions of interaction and production, for example in correspondence or teamwork. The extended skills descriptions can be extremely useful when designing a course or setting goals for our learners to achieve and revising whether the goals have achieved. This webinar will focus on the categories of mediation and pluricultural communication to demonstrate how the new descriptors can help us in our work.
If you want to see the webinar it is available as a YouTube video on JALT BizCom SIG channel, so here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGuA7tD4AFs Thanks to Rab and Alan!
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(Updated on May 4th, 2021 MGS)