Report on the Spring FLP SIG Seminar
The Saturday March 14th activities, held in the Momoyama Gakuin/St. Andrew’s university campus in Osaka,focused on the use of can do statements. The workshops were led by Fergus O’Dwyer, unless noted, and the participants were asked to think about the activities in terms of their upcoming April 2009 classes. Participants specified their classes content in terms of objectives/can do statements in the first workshop. The purpose was forparticipants to see how the can do statements can be used a base for classes but need to be expanded. The second workshop, led by Dr. Naoyuki Naganuma, continued on from this theme with participants showed how one skill (e.g. asking and answering questions) is dealt in layered complexity form each level of the CEFR to the next (e.g. from A1 to A2 and B1). After noticing this participants made a scale of achievement as a result. This can be very useful for assessment in mixed level classes and classes continuing over a long period. The participants used the above information in the final workshop of the day to create a basic assessment in relation to a textbook they
planned to use in April classes. The first day wrapped up Etsuko Shimo leading a presentation and discussion about the Kindai can-do framework currently being developed at Kinki University.
The second day Sunday focused more on the ELP with the day starting with a workshop dealing with the part reflection can play in the language learning classroom. As with all workshops this topic elicited lively discussion. Dr. Maria Gabriela Schmidt then explained how she is using the CEFR and adapting the ELP in her German classes at Tsukuba University. Participants were particularly impressed with her use of diaries in classes. Before a brief discussion of the SIG activities and possible improvements to the recently developed Language Portfolio (LP) the seminar wrapped up by participants explaining and discussion personal action plans for use of the CEFR and LP in upcoming classes. This was useful as it is not often that we get the chance to discuss such topics.