Background
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) represents an important shift in thinking about language teaching and learning in Canada and the world. It is a new way of framing language acquisition, teaching and the development of proficiency. It encourages us to step back and re-evaluate how languages are being taught and how well students learn. The CEFR also encourages us to be open to new and innovative teaching strategies that will ensure that all students, not just those few with a high aptitude for language learning, will achieve what they set out to do—that is, develop oral and written proficiency in the target language!
The CEFR was first introduced in Canada in 2006 by Dr. Laurens Vandergrift in New Canadian Perspectives: Proposal for a Common Framework of Reference for Languages for Canada. Many provinces in Canada are looking to the CEFR as a framework that will help guide their new second language curriculum documents.
The CEFR is…
• A language reference tool
• Useful for educators, language learners, and parents
• A way to display continued language growth along a continuum
• Positive and engaging
• Applicable across grades and subjects
• Inclusive and user-friendly
The CEFR is not…
• A curriculum
• A rigid checklist
• Subject specific
• Grade/age-specific
• A new program
Taken from A Guide to Using the Common Framework of Reference (CFR) With Learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) http://www.education.gov.sk.ca/guide-to-using-cfr-with-eal
The CEFR’s Action-Oriented Approach and the AIM (Accelerative Integrated Methodology) are beautifully aligned, both in philosophy and in overarching goals. Both promote an approach whose goal is to ensure that students constantly move forward on a continuum of language proficiency. Both ensure that students develop the ability to communicate, orally and in writing. The CEFR describes how students’ ability to communicate with accuracy increases throughout the levels A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2; descriptors are provided at each level to outline the levels of llanguage complexity attained.
We must keep in mind that language learning is a complex process. The CEFR outlines three major competencies involved in communication:
1. linguistic (including lexical, syntactical knowledge and the ability to store this information);
2. sociolinguistic (politeness and other social conventions); and
3. pragmatic (functions of speech, discourse and coherence in communication).
The best language educators know that in order for students to gain confidence and reduce the affective filter so that learning is optimized (Krashen, 1982), we must present students with comprehensible input, to build a solid foundation of language and move to the next level of language ability, always remaining in the Zone of ProximalDevelopment (Vygotsky, 1978). Doing this will ensure that students move successfully through the various language proficiency levels. While it is essential that we present real-life tasks to students, we must be very careful not to assign tasks that are overwhelming and above the language level attained. If tasks that are too linguistically complex are presented to students, what commonly results is frustration on the part of both teacher and students and the risk of reliance on the mother tongue, rather than the desired target language, in order to understand and carry out the task.
Each of our AIM language and literacy kits provides you with all the tools—the techniques, strategies and scaffolding—necessary to develop proficiency so that students are able to successfully engage in the specific tasks as social agents as described in the CEFR. Once you are near successful implementation of a Step One kit, most of your students should have reached an A1.1 level of proficiency.
According to the CEFR’s Global Scale ‘Can do’ statements for this level, each student:
• can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type;
• can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has;
• can interact in a simple way, provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
Please view this video of an Ontario Core French student, whose teacher has been trained in the methodology and using AIM in full with this student for a few years. The student is engaging in a spontaneous interview with her teacher:
To help you assess your students’ language proficiency, we have produced a book entitled The Language Skills Assessment Package and Student Portfolio. This resource will allow you to measure your students’ progress through the language levels as outlined in the CEFR. One of the reasons why AIM students gain rapid proficiency is because vocabulary is repeated sufficiently for acquisition. The safe, familiar context of the play is the basis upon which all literacy activities are created. In order to ensure student success, the series of tasks in this book begins with the play and then moves from the play to the less contextualized, personal tasks.
At the A1 level, the CEFR describes student ability in the five areas as follows:
Fluency, Interaction, Vocabulary Range and Control, Grammatical Accuracy, Phonological Control
FLUENCY
Can manage very short, isolated, mainly pre-packaged utterances, with much pausing to search for expressions, to
articulate less familiar words, and to repair communication.
INTERACTION
Can ask and answer questions about personal details. Can interact in a simple way but communication is totally
dependent on repetition, rephrasing and repair.
VOCABULARY RANGE & CONTROL
Has a basic vocabulary repertoire of isolated words and phrases related to particular, concrete situations.
GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY
Shows only limited control of a few simple grammatical structures and sentence patterns in a learnt repertoire.
PHONOLOGICAL CONTROL
Pronunciation of a very limited repertoire of learnt words and phrases, can be understood with some effort by native speakers used to dealing with speakers of his/her language group.
In the AIM resources, you will find a series of activities that will provide you and your students with the opportunity to experience tasks at each language proficiency level of the CEFR, scaffolded through the known context of the play and out to manageable real-life tasks.
As for all AIM activities, a script for gestured Teacher-Led Self-Expression (TLSE) will guide you through the modelling recommended during whole-class activities so that your students will be successful in engaging in these activities with a partner during partner/group activity time.
References
Campbell, Joseph. (1949)The Hero With a Thousand Faces. New York: Princeton University Press.
Council of Europe. (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. Cambridge University Press.
Krashen, S. (1982) Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. New York: Pergamon Press.
Ontario Ministry of Eucation. (2010) Growing Success: Assessment, Evaluation and Reporting in Ontario Schools
Vandergrift, L. (2006) New Canadian Perspectives: Proposal for a Common Framework of Reference for Languages for
Canada. University of Ottawa: Ottawa, Canada.
Vygotsky, L. (1978) Interaction between Learning and Development (pp. 79-91). In Mind in Society.
(Trans. M. Cole). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.