what does it mean to be bilingual

What does it mean to be bilingual? Assessment and instruction with the Common European Framework of Reference for Language

Mais sommes-nous bilingues?  Stories from the French Immersion classroom

What is the goal of a language program?  How does the teacher know where the student is along the path to reaching that goal?

 How does the student determine where they are on the path to reaching that goal?

Assessment in language programs  Exams- produce a grade, out of 5, a percentage, a letter grade

 Performance assessments

 How do these translate into competency?

Placement tests

 Often used to evaluate language competence

 Varied from area to area and depending on objective

 Not a common standard  Language learner does not necessarily gain a clear understanding of their language competency

What am I able to do with my French?

Answer the phone? Write a formal letter? Make

a reservation? Present a research paper? Convince

someone of my political opinion? How to vote?

Explore the following  How does using competency levels re-frame assessment?

 How does the CEFR re-frame program development?

 How does the CEFR re-frame classroom instruction?

History  In the wake of a growing interest in a common

framework of reference for languages across Canada as a common basis for describing and measuring language proficiency, national standards and a national FSL proficiency test to track progress against proposed targets such as the Government of Canada’s Action Plan which proposed to double the proportion of secondary school students graduating with a functional level of proficiency in their second official language by the year 2013 (PCO, 2003).

History  Council of Ministers of Education of Canada  Initial research project examining the possible role of the CEFR in Canada ( Dr. L. Vandergrift,S. Rehorick)  Increasing use in public education system of DELF exams ( 82 exams 2005, 2920 exams in 2011)  Use of competency levels as the basis for language programs

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages  The importance of the CEFR framework is due to

its provision of a comprehensive, transparent, and coherent account of language competencies

 common basis for describing and measuring language proficiency across Canada

  © Conseil de l’Europe / Les Éditions Didier, Paris 2001

Common European Framework of Reference for Languages  • The provision of a common set of proficiency

statements will facilitate comparisons of objectives, levels, materials, tests and achievement in different systems and situations.   A framework including both horizontal and

vertical dimensions facilitates the defi- nition of partial objectives and the recognition of uneven profiles, partial competen- cies.

  © Conseil de l’Europe / Les Éditions Didier, Paris 2001

Description of levels of competency

Breakthrough is considered the lowest level of generative language use – the point at which the learner can interact in a simple way, ask and answer simple questions about themselves, where they live, people they know, and things they have, initiate and respond to simple statements in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics,  Waystage It is at this level that the majority of

descriptors stating social functions are to be found, like use simple everyday polite forms of greeting and address; greet people, ask how they are and react to news; handle very short social exchanges;

Description of levels of competency

 Threshold where the speaker has the ability to maintain interaction and get across what you want to, in a range of contexts and the ability to cope flexibly with problems in everyday life,

 Vantage he/she acquires a new perspective, can look around him/her in a new way; a level described as ‘Limited Operational Proficiency and adequate response to situations normally encountered, a focus on effective argument; effective social discourse and on language awareness

Description of levels of competency

 Effective Operational Proficiency which was called ‘Effective Proficiency’ ,by Trim ‘Adequate Operational Proficiency’ by Wilkins, and represents an advanced level of competence

suitable for more complex work and study tasks; good access to a broad range of language, which allows fluent, spontaneous communication  Mastery . not intended to imply native-speaker or near native-

speaker competence; the degree of precision, appropriateness and ease with the language which typifies the speech of those who have been highly successful learners: convey finer shades of meaning precisely by using, with reasonable accuracy, a wide range of modification devices; has a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of connotative level of meaning; backtrack and restructure around a difficulty so smoothly the interlocutor is hardly aware of it.

Intermediate    A2    Survival  

4  of  the  6  levels  of    competence  

In  our  public  school  system,students  in  our  French  language  programs  generally  can  a=ain  the  following  levels:  

Introductory      A1  Discovery    

Independent    B2    Avanced  or  independant                

Threshold    B1            

•  Oral comprehension (reception) •  Oral production

•  oral interaction

•  Written comprehension

•  Written production

The five competencies

How does this affect assessment?  Self assessment grid  Portfolio  Authentic tasks as assessment tasks -DELF

Diplôme d’études de langue française  An exam for each level (A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2)

 Assessing each competency- listening comprehension, reading comprehension, oral interaction, oral presentation, written production

 Authentic language tasks  Trained examiners and correctors  International standard of language competency

DELF in Canada   23 Centres d’examen DELF-DALF au Canada

repartis parmi les ministères d’éducation, des conseils scolaires, des universités et des Alliances françaises

  3611 récipients en 2011

  20e plus grand nombre de participants au monde

  97% de récipients des diplômes viennent du DELF Scolaire

THE DELF in Canada: Stakeholder’s Perception September 2012

 Teacher comments point to the washback effects of the DELF on their teaching. In other words, the DELF can and does change pedagogy. FSL classes become more communicative in orientation through increased practice of speaking skills and more emphasis on authentic documents for listening and reading.

Teacher comments   ‘Ma compréhension du DELF et le concept du CECR m'ont fait changer mes méthodes d'enseignements qui sont maintenant beaucoup plus interactives, orales, incluent de la pensée critique et de l'instruction différenciée’

 ‘Je fais maintenant plus de compréhension de l'orale’

Teacher comments  I believe that the DELF adds that little extra bit of "pressure" on the students in a positive way. They begin to realize that they do need to be accurate, and put effort into their work, in order to be well understood in a real life situation. I have started to base my evaluation less and less on very specific grammatical rules, and more to broad contextual evaluations, with a grammatical component.

Students  ‘It is a great opportunity to challenge yourself

and experience something different’  ‘I think that it's a good way to challenge

yourself, and it made me more confident in the French language’

 ‘It is a great way to assess what you have learned and proceed further into the French language to extend you skills’

 ‘I was stressed at first, but it was actually comforting and makes me feel proud of myself that I could accomplish an exam like that :) ‘

Students  ‘it is a good marker to see your level of French, and a way to compare yourselves to a certain standard’

 ‘Taking a test not given by your teacher is a great way to see how well you're doing in the course and it’s a great confidence booster...’

 ‘It provides an indication of French proficiency and encourages students to improve in areas where they struggle’

How does this affect curriculum development?  Draft Revised French curriculum British

Columbia  Based on the Common european Framework  Structure:  Provincially required learning outcome statements

 Suggested Can-do statements  Suggested profiency-based Can Do statements

Language learning  Engages learners in meaningful and authentic

and purposeful language- learning tasks  Is not additively sequential but recursive  Proficiency includes both production and

comprehension  Instruction takes learning styles and rates into

account  Assessment reflects instructional goals and is

based on performance   Draft Curriculum http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/drafts/french.pdf

Examples:

  Provincially required learning outcome statements   Suggested Can-do statements   Suggested profiency-based Can Do statements

Other curricula

 Second language program in the Atlantic provinces correlated with the CEFR

 Second language program Province of Ontario inspired by the CEFR Programme de langues secondes en Ontario

 Second language programs in Alberta (PONC) inspired by the CEFR

How does this affect classroom instruction  Authentic tasks  Student ownership of learning  Classroom resources levelled  Goal-setting with outcomes in mind

Impact on National debate  Stakeholders’ Meeting on the

Implementation of CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) in Canada

 March 11, 2011 Gatineau, Quebec

 L'évaluation dans un contexte de mouvance individuelle et sociétale

 Centre Canadien d’études et de recherche en bilinguisme et aménagement linguistique

 28 et 29 avril 2011

references  Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. (2010).  Working with the Common European Framework of

Reference for Languages (CEFR) in the Canadian Context: Guide for policy-makers and curriculum designers. Toronto, ON: Author.

 Vandergrift, L. (2006). New Canadian perspectives: Proposal for a common framework of reference for languages for Canada. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Heritage

 OCDSB Quality Assurance Division. (2011). Grade 12 French proficiency test: Results from the 2010-11 administration. Mimeo.