Situating Strategy Use: The interplay of language learning strategies and individual learning characteristics | Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt | 16-17 October 2015

CROSS-LANGUAGE MEDIATIONSTRATEGY USE ACROSSPROFICIENCY LEVELS

Dr Maria StathopoulouLecturer | National Technical University of Athens

RCeL Research Fellow | University of AthensTutor | Hellenic Open University

Expert Member of the working group concerning the CEFR | Council of Europe

o selective extraction of information from a ST in one language and relaying it in another language for a given communicative purpose

o interpretation of meanings articulated in STs & making of new meanings in the TL expressed appropriately for the context of situation (Dendrinos, 2006)

o is a form of translanguaging (Stathopoulou, 2013, 2015)Involves interplay of languages: moving back and forth among different languages – no clear cut boundaries between languages

What does mediation involve?

Cross-language mediation in the European context

“In both the receptive and productive modes, the written and/or oral activities of mediation make communication possible between persons who are unable, for whatever reason to communicate with each other directly.”

“Mediation language activities, (re)processing an existing text, occupy an important place in the normal linguistic functioning of our societies.”

Mediation in the CEFR (2001) ?

Cross-language mediation in the Greek

context

National Foreign Language Exams

(KPG exams, 2003)Integrated Foreign

Languages Curriculum (2011)

TEACHING

TESTING

RESEARCH(Stathopoulou, 2013, 2009)

Mingling-of-languages idea

Multilingual testingMonolingual testing

The innovation in the exams

Using information from the text below, write an email (80 words) to your friend Dylan who is in Greece informing him about the Cultural Park of Athens and telling him what he can do there if he visits it.

Mediation in the Greek national foreign language exams (KPG) : A B1 level example

..learners’ - ability to move back and forth between languages - ability to simultaneously draw on different linguistic and cultural

resources from a variety of contexts.

Mediation tasks assess…

Research on mediation

Research aim to explore the mechanisms of cross-language mediation (in a

testing context) to investigate what strategies lead to successful mediation

performance

This paper: examines the extent to which proficiency level affects mediation

strategy use

Research organisation

STAG

E 1

Task analysis(KPG Task Database)

STAG

E 2

Textual analysis(Corpus of 53.000 words)

Typology of written mediation tasks

Inventory of written mediation strategies (IWMS)

THE CORPUSB1 B2 C1 No of

wordsPhase 1

7.950 7.950

Phase 2

9.000 18.000 18.000 45.000

TOTAL NUMBER 9.000 25.950 18.000

52.950

Towards model development

• Analysis of a limited corpus

(Exploratory) Phase 1

Preliminary category set

• Analysis of a large corpus

Phase 2

Final category set

The Inventory of Written Mediation Strategies (IWMS) TYPE A MEDIATION STRATEGIES

1. Creative blending between extracted and extra-textual information

1a text level (NOT required by the task)

1b text level (required by the task)

1c sentence level (NOT required by the task)

1d sentence level (required by the task)

2. Combining information

2a text level

2b sentence level

3. Summarising

3a Summarising part of the text

3a1 sentence level: sentence extracted transferring the gist

3a2 text level: main ideas

3a3 text level: main ideas + extracted concluding-general statement

3a4 text level: main ideas + inserted concluding-general statement

3a5text level: sentence inserted transferring the gist & inserted concluding-general statement

3a6 text level: sentence inserted transferring the gist + extracted concluding statement

3a7 text level: topic sentence extracted + main ideas

3a8 text level: topic sentence extracted + main ideas + inserted concluding statement

3a9 text level: topic sentence inserted + main ideas

3a10 text level: topic sentence inserted + main ideas + extracted concluding statement

3a11text level: topic sentence inserted + main ideas + inserted concluding statement

3b Summarising the whole text

3b1 sentence level: sentence inserted transferring the gist

3b2 text level: main ideas

3b3 text level: main ideas + extracted concluding statement

3b4 text level: main ideas + inserted concluding statement

3b5 text level: topic sentence extracted + main ideas

3b6 text level: topic sentence extracted + main ideas + extracted concluding statement

3b7 text level: topic sentence extracted + main ideas + inserted concluding statement

3b8 text level: topic sentence inserted + main ideas + inserted concluding statement

3b9 text level: topic sentence inserted + main ideas

4 Reorganising extracted information

4a text level (paragraphs, sentences)

4b sentence level (clauses, words)

TYPE B MEDIATION STRATEGIES

5Condensing (at sentence level) by combining two (or more) short sentences into one (sentence fusion)

6 Expanding

6a Breaking one sentence into two (or more) simpler ones

6b Piece of information followed/preceded transferring the gist

6c Piece of information followed/preceded transferring the same meaning

7 Paraphrasing

7a Syntax-level paraphrasing (including lexico-syntactic paraphrasing)

7b Syntax-level paraphrasing (transforming bullets into continuous text)

7c Phrase-level paraphrasing

7d Word-level paraphrasing

Quantitative & qualitative analysis• To what extent do task parameters and

requirements affect written mediation-strategy use?

• Which strategies (and to what extent) differentiate successful from less successful mediation scripts?

• Which strategies (and to what extent) differentiate scripts of different proficiency levels?

To what extent does the linguistic realisation of mediation strategies in low level mediation scripts differ from the linguistic realisation of the strategies traced in high level scripts?

Complementing the results derived from the statistical analysis with qualitative findings to investigate the potential for linguistic features related to specific mediation strategies to discriminate between texts written by low- and high-proficiency writers

The higher the proficiency level, the more scripts that include strategies of both types

Strategies

Proficiency level

B1 B2 C1

Count % of B1 scripts Count % of B2

scripts Count % of C1 scripts

Type A 6 3,3 19 10,6 7 3,9

Type B 65 36,1 26 14,4 13 7,2

Type A & B 108 60,0 126 70,0 159 88,3

none 1 ,6 9 5,0 1 ,6

The higher the level, the less scripts including exclusively Type B strategies

The higher the level, the more scripts including the strategies of creative blending, combining and summarising

0

20

40

60

80

100

25

6

39

9 92

96

29

14

57

11 12

1

84

66

18

62

413

5

96

Mediation strategies - Proficiency level

B1B2C1

% o

f s

cri

pts

The higher the level, the greater the variety of strategies used simultaneously

B1 B2 C10

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

1

5

1

36

20

9

45 46

37

15

22

36

46

16

0 12

0 1 0

Variety of mediation strategies - Proficiency level

0 strategies1 strategy2 strategies3 strategies4 strategies5 strategies6 strategies%

of

sc

rip

ts

The higher the level, the more words are used in order for creative blending, summarising and syntax level paraphrasing to be realised

Number of words through which strategies are realised in scripts across proficiency levels

WordsProficiency level

B1 B2 C1scripts Mean scripts Mean scripts Mean

Creat.blending (sentence level) 20 17,5 30 23,1 54 25,6

Creat.blending (text level) 29 28,0 32 35,4 89 43,9

Summarising 71 44,7 103 35,9 111 84,0

Phrasal Paraphrasing 53 4,1 39 4,2 100 4,8

Syntactic Paraphrasing 165 7,4 135 8,5 167 8,3

Qualitative analyses

focused on the frequently detected mediation strategies, (creative blending between extracted and extra-textual information, combining of extracted messages and paraphrasing):

a) Analysis 1: focused on sentence semantics (logico-semantic relations holding between clauses through which mediation strategies are realized )

b) Analysis 2: focused on sentence grammar (lexico-grammatical patterns which differentiate syntax, phrase and word-level paraphrasing

B1 C1COMBINING

All clauses in the instances of combining are linked by extensionEX: First of all listen to music every morning when you make up! Never forget that! You can also listen your favourite songs, while going to school or when you are in the bus.

Elaboration (restatement, exemplification, clarification): main relationEX: Another advice I would give is boycotting products and services which are not friendly for the environment. We must develop an environmental conscience. Not only must we recycle and use recyclable commodities, but a wider action is also needed. Changing our way of life would be effective.

CREATIVE BLENDING

Enhancement (reference to time, place, manner, cause or condition) commonly occursEX: You can also take exersise a couple of hours before you go to sleep. If you do this, you can take the stress away and sleep easily, too.

Extension is much more used as a linkage in the instances of creative blendingEX: To be more specific, I knew that I had to face a dense of difficulties. You know…they are saying that if you quit smoking, you will get fatter and you will always be in bad mood or feel depressed. But I ignore them. I asked my family to support me.

Types of relations between low & high proficiency texts: examples

SYNTAX- LEVEL PARAPHRASING1. Lexico-syntactic paraphrasing2. Sentence level

sentence structure change (compound> complex> simple) word order changevoice change

3. Clause level clause structure change (main>subordinate) clause type change (enhancement, elaboration, extension)clause mood change (declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory)clause relation change

4. Other re-structuring techniquesrank change (sentence>clause> phrase) negative construction to statement (& vice versa)omission of certain lexical elements

PHRASE-LEVEL PARAPHRASING1. Phrase-level paraphrasing: phrase type change2. Phrasal-level paraphrasing: rank change (phrase>word)

WORD-LEVEL PARAPHRASING1. rank change (word>phrase), same meaning 3. Formal paraphrases 2. Semantic paraphrases word class

providing an equivalent word, same meaning number changeproviding an equivalent word, similar meaning tense changeproviding an equivalent word, slightly different meaning

aspect change (progressive>perfect, perfect>progressive)

providing a superordinate (generalisation) person change providing a subordinate (particularisation)

Quantitative and… qualitative analysis

Quantitative analysis: brought to the surface indications of differentiated strategy-use across tasks of different proficiency levels

Qualitative analysis: showed to what extent the linguistic means, through which mediation strategies are realized, differs as the level increases.

Contribution & usefulness of the study The study constitutes a starting point for the

development of descriptors for reliable assessment of mediation competence

mediation strategies needed for learners of different levels when being involved in different mediation tasks the language to be used by learners at each proficiency level (Stathopoulou, 2013a, 2013b)

http://www.multilingual-matters.com/display.asp?K=9781783094110

The book: o raises readers’ awareness regarding the

‘mingling-of languages idea’ in teaching and testing

o stresses the urgent need for foreign language policies to consider cross-language mediation as a fundamental ability that language learners need to develop,

o advocates the implementation of programmes aiming at the development of translanguaging and mediation strategies

Maria Stathopouloumastathop@enl.uoa.gr