Research Workshop – How to evaluate intercultural experiences Evaluating learners’ ’ intercultural experiences intercultural experiences Evaluating learners in teaching and assessing in teaching and assessing Chinese as a foreign language Chinese as a foreign language – A proposal from the EBCL Project A proposal from the EBCL Project – Liang Wang SOAS, University of London 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 1
Languages in Europe � European context – pluralingual in a multicultural Europe (European citizens) Day of European Languages? � A day for European languages or for languages used in Europe (e.g. Japanese, Chinese)? 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 2
CEFR impact � European context – pluralingual in a multicultural Europe (European citizens) International � From CEFR to EBCL European Benchmarking Chinese Language Project (Nov 2010) http://ebcl.eu.com/ 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 3
EBCL project partners Freie La University Rennes II Sapienza SOAS Berlin GE FR IT UK GE FR IT UK Associated schools Project partners Advisory Board 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 4
EBCL project principles � Based on CEFR, user oriented (learners, teachers, assessors, institutions, etc.) and reference only � Rooted in the European context, but with due attention to the international society (esp. advanced levels) � Taken into consideration the linguistic features of the Chinese language as well as intercultural knowledge and skills � Taken into consideration the reality and development of Chinese language learning and teaching in Europe 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 5
EBCL project objectives To propose a framework To raise awareness of of competence socio-cultural and linguistic descriptors for Chinese in differences between European context Chinese and European languages EBCL Project A modified framework of competence descriptors To start a dynamic database To create a network in of universities (and other Europe and beyond for institutions) in Europe that teachers and institutions offer Chinese language concerned courses 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 6
Chinese as a foreign language – 1 � Different backgrounds and varieties of Chinese language � Use of Chinese in Europe vs. use of Chinese in Greater China � Internationalising Chinese � Localising Chinese e.g. 1 What do you expect your students to address you and what do your students address you? e.g. 2 ‘A Germany learner would not likely to associate with the word 认真 (studious) when describing someone who spends a lot of time studying and enjoys it.’ 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 7
Chinese as a foreign language – 2 � Lack of interactional perspectives and pedagogical practices � Culture as products � Culture as practice � Culture as perspectives � Individual and interpersonal experience? � Made implicit in most language courses ‘My students are all mature students so I assume that they are already culturally competent to some degree and actually there is no particular way of teaching intercultural competence.’ ZZ (personal communication, 28/04/12) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 8
IC dimension in FLE � Theoretical perspectives on culture and communication � Essentialist view � Background studies: a range of knowledge to be transmitted (monocultural) � Cross-cultural comparison: over-generalization, stereotyping (bi-cultural) � Intercultural communication: interaction, but binary tradition of ‘Us’ & ‘Them’ � Negotiated/non-essentialist view (Scollon and Scollon 2001; Piller 2007) � Interdiscourse communication: a process of assertion, negotiation, construction, reflection, and the dynamics of interaction between individuals (interpersonal and social) � The changing goal of FLE � ‘Native-speaker’ ‘Intercultural-speaker’ � Communicative competence (CC) Intercultural CC (ICC) (Byram 1997; Byram, Gribkova and Starkey, 2001; Corbett 2003; Kramsch 1998, 2001) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 9
IC dimension in CEFR - 1 � Educational objective ‘a central objective of language education [is] to promote the favourable development of the learner’s whole personality and sense of identity in response to the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture.’ CEFR (2001:1) � Social objective ‘to achieve a wider and deeper understanding of the way of life and forms of thought of other peoples and of their cultural heritage.’ CEFR (2001:3) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 10
IC dimension in CEFR - 2 � Political objective ‘To promote mutual understanding and tolerance, respect for identities and cultural diversity through more effective international communication. To maintain and further develop the richness and diversity of European cultural life through greater mutual knowledge of national and regional languages, including those less widely taught. To meet the needs of a multilingual and multicultural Europe by appreciably developing the ability of Europeans to communicate with each other across linguistic and cultural boundaries, which requires a sustained, lifelong effort to be encouraged, put on an organised footing and financed at all levels of education by the competent bodies.’ CEFR (2001:3) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 11
IC dimension in CEFR - 3 � Emerging but under-developed ‘ intercultural awareness’, ‘intercultural skills’, ‘existential competence’ CEFR (2001) ‘although the CEF included a discussion of intercultural competence and intercultural awareness, the question of assessment and the defining of levels of intercultural competence, had to be left aside as the CEF went to press.’ Neuner, Parmenter, Starkey and Zarate (2003) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 12
IC dimension in CEFR - 4 � Lack of clarity ‘the influence of the CEFR in Europe and other countries does not include the question of intercultural competence and pluriculturalism. Neither does it include the notion of “mediation”.’ Byram (2011:68) � Competence of mediation finding a solution to the conflict or problem rather than merely translation/interpretation Byram et al. (1994, in Byram 2011) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 13
IC dimension in ICCLE � International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education (2008) � Cultural awareness model � Cultural knowledge � Cultural understanding � Cross-cultural awareness � Global awareness � Lack of progressive description � Abstract vs concrete 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 14
ICC/IC assessment models � Byram (1997) – most comprehensive and well worked-out with objectives for teaching and assessment; prescriptive more than descriptive � Deardorff (2006) – synthesis of existing expert views, which justifies Byram’s model � LOLIPOP portfolio (2004) – online interactive version of ELP with an enhanced intercultural dimension � INCA (2004) – a framework, a suite of tools for intercultural competence assessment in work contexts linked to language and subject knowledge competence � CEFcult (2010) – a framework for enhancing language proficiency for intercultural professional communication 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 15
Byram’s model � ICC model � Communicative competence � Linguistic � Sociolinguistic � Discourse � Intercultural competence Skills (discover, (IC) interact) knowledge � Knowledge Critical awareness � Attitude Skills (interpret, � Skills relate) Attitudes � Critical cultural awareness 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 16
Deardorff’s models 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 17
The IC dimension within EBCL Generic and illustrative descriptors: Reception Spoken/Written Production Spoken/Written Interaction Spoken/Written Communication Strategies Sociolinguistic components Pragmatic components (List of themes and topics) (List of language functions) Linguistic components Intercultural components (vocabulary/character, (intercultural profile: grammar, grapheme, etc.) cognitive, affective, behavioural) 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 18
Proposals � A portfolio approach to building up can-do statements � open list on the basis of Byram (1997) � knowledge-related (themes/notions) � action-oriented (behaviours/language functions) � Collection of learners’ intercultural experiences for data � Experiential learning in real-life contexts � intercultural ‘ communicative ’ experience � with linguistic evidence, supplemented by � EBCL List of Themes/Topics � EBCL List of Language Functions 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 19
Challenges � The integration of the intercultural dimension � Being (doing + knowing) � Language and paralanguage � Gradeability (knowledge, skills, affection, awareness)? � Use of Chinese in Europe vs. use of Chinese in Greater China � Overlapping � Complementary � Data-driven approach � Scale of corpora � Generalisability vs representativeness 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 20
Qs & As … Updated information about the project, please visit http://ebcl.eu.com/ Contact: Liang Wang, l.wang@soas.ac.uk 10-14/09/2012 Fachhochschule Dortmund, Germany 21
Recommend
More recommend
