Search results for "language assessment"
showing 10 items of 55 documents
The development of a suite of computer-based diagnostic tests based on the Common European Framework
2005
DIALANG is an on-line language assessment system, which contains tests in 14 European languages and is based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). It is the first major testing system that is oriented towards diagnosing language skills and providing feedback to users rather than certifying their proficiency. This article describes the contents of Version 1 of DIALANG and the way in which the system works. This is followed by an account of the development of DIALANG tests and of the pilot testing and standard setting procedures. The results of the first analyses of items and self-assessment statements, and of the standard setting procedures, are reported. The article focuses…
Strategic Processing of Chinese Young English Language Learners in an International Standardized English Language Test
2018
Strategic competence is acknowledged to be able to explain variations in language test performance. Research with adult language test-takers has shown that strategic competence has dual components: strategic knowledge and strategic processing. Of the two components, strategic processing, which is state-like, unstable, and tends to fluctuate from contexts to contexts, is more closely related to language test performance. To date, none of the existing studies investigates strategic processing with children English language learners (ELLs) and explores the relationship between strategic processing in all the four skills of language learning and the test performance. Addressing these gaps, the …
New media and perennial problems in foreign language learning and teaching
2015
The book concerns the ways in which the new media shape communication along with educational expectations and practices in foreign language classrooms. Although foreign language learners have cheap and easy access to information and ways of communication, they also wrestle with problems that have always accompanied language learning. The focus of the book is two-fold. On the one hand, the authors demonstrate how using social networks, videoconferencing, mobile phones, wikis, and computer-mediated interaction contributes to the development of language skills, negotiated interaction, autonomy, and intercultural competence. On the other, they discuss “old” issues pertaining to the role of voca…
Use your languages! : From monolingual to multilingual interaction in a language class
2015
This reflective paper presents a new course concept for multilingual interaction, which was piloted at the University of Jyväskylä Language Centre in the spring of 2014. The course, implemented as part of the centre’s action research, is the result of a development process aimed at enhancing students’ multilingual and multicultural academic communication competences along with promoting use of their entire linguistic repertoire. The course concept was inspired by the EU project Modularising Multilingual and Multicultural Academic Communication Competence (MAGICC), whose main intent is “to integrate multilingual and multicultural academic communication competences as graduate learning outcom…
Developing a conceptual framework : the case of MAGICC
2015
This paper reports the steps taken to develop the conceptual framework of the MAGICC project (2013), which aimed to provide action-oriented descriptions of multilingual and multicultural academic and professional communication competence, instructional designs to promote these in higher education language teaching, and multidimensional forms of assessment aligned with the learning outcomes established – all presented in an academic ePortfolio that expands the features of the existing European Language Portfolio (ELP) to the higher education level. “Starting with systematic desk research into the existing conceptualisations of multi/plurilingual and multi/ intercultural competences as well a…
Learning paths on elementary university courses in Finnish as a second language
2015
Along with the growing degree of internationalisation, Finnish university education needs to address issues related to learning and teaching Finnish as a second language. From the perspective of teaching Finnish and related pedagogical development, it is essential to recognise when, where and for which purposes learners need Finnish at the various stages of the language acquisition process. This article focuses on the learning paths of three international students who studied Finnish on a one-term elementary course at the University of Jyvaskyla Language Centre. The article is based on a socio-cultural and ecological view on language learning and teaching. The data consist of learning diary…
Language Learning Methodology for Adults: A Study of Linguistic Transfer
2014
Abstract The purpose of the present research is to bring together the evidence on transfer in adult L2 and L3 language acquisition and investigate the use and the relationship between languages in contact. The role of linguistic transfer ( Odlin, 1989 ) i.e. the imposition of previously learned patterns onto a new learning situation, has a facilitation or inhibition effect on the learner's progress in mastering a new language (L2 or L3). Our findings reveal that the cross-linguistic influence occurs both from the direction of the L2 to the L3 and from the L3 to the L2 ( Odlin, 2003 , Jarvis and Pavlenko, 2008 ). In the case of our participants, in the acquisition of L2 as the foreign langua…
Processing habits and second language learning: Students’ self‐evaluation of their learning
1994
Abstract This article reports a study of students’ second language learning at the upper stage of the comprehensive school. The aim of the study was to analyse students’ conscious second language learning activity and the kinds of language problems the students themselves recognise. 700 students (14–15 year‐olds), representative of the Swedish‐speaking schools in Finland, answered a questionnaire regarding their learning habits and language problems in Finnish. The differences between successful and less successful students were then analysed. The results show that successful and less successful language learners did not differ from each other in processing intensity and general approach to…
Atypical perceptual narrowing in prematurely born infants is associated with compromised language acquisition at 2 years of age
2010
Abstract Background Early auditory experiences are a prerequisite for speech and language acquisition. In healthy children, phoneme discrimination abilities improve for native and degrade for unfamiliar, socially irrelevant phoneme contrasts between 6 and 12 months of age as the brain tunes itself to, and specializes in the native spoken language. This process is known as perceptual narrowing, and has been found to predict normal native language acquisition. Prematurely born infants are known to be at an elevated risk for later language problems, but it remains unclear whether these problems relate to early perceptual narrowing. To address this question, we investigated early neurophysiolog…