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Competences, D. Newby 1
Kompetenzen: (Lehrplan, AHS-Unterstufe)
Competences, D. Newby
2
www.gers.at
Language Processes
COMPETENCE
(Grammar rules,
lexicon etc.)
PERFORMANCE
INPUT
Competences, D. Newby
4
Learning Processes
Natural
INTAKE
INPUT OUTPUT
Pedagogical
Competences, D. Newby
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Pedagogical issues
a) What is taken in?
b) How does intake (i.e.
learning) work?
How should this be c) how can learning be
structured? INTAKE optimised by pedagogy
(Objectives etc.)
How can this be
described/assessed?
INPUT
OUTPUT
Competences, D. Newby
6
Language and Learning Processes
INTAKE/
COMPETENCE
OUTPUT/
INPUT PERFORMANCE
Competences, D. Newby
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Language and Learning Processes
PERFORMANCE
INTAKE/
COMPETENCE
Process of Product
performING
OUTPUT/
INPUT PerformED
Competences, D. Newby
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Competence & Performance – Chomsky, 1965
Competences, D. Newby
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‘Idealized’ view of language
Competences, D. Newby
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The nature of grammar/competence
Grammar
“A grammar of a language purports to be a
description of the ideal speaker-hearer's intrinsic
competence.” (p4)
Mentalist view
”(...) in the technical sense linguistic theory is mentalistic,
since it is concerned with discovering a mental reality
underlying actual behavior.” (p4)
Competences, D. Newby
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The nature of grammar/competence
Creativity
“(...) one of the qualities that all languages have in common
is their 'creative’ aspect. Thus an essential property of
language is that it provides the means for expressing
indefinitely many thoughts and for reacting appropriately
in an indefinite range of new situations.” (p6)
Competences, D. Newby
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Tacit knowledge
Competences, D. Newby
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Structural view
Competences, D. Newby
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Performance – imperfect view of language
Competences, D. Newby
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Issues
Competences, D. Newby
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Criticism of Chomskyan view
Dell Hymes Michael Halliday
Competences, D. Newby
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Criticism of Chomsky
Competences, D. Newby
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Communicative Competence
Competences, D. Newby
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Communicative competence
Competences, D. Newby
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Language as a social semiotic
Competences, D. Newby
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Need for a theory of use
Competences, D. Newby
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Need for a theory of use
Competences, D. Newby
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Definition of communicative competence
Competences, D. Newby
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1. Whether (and to what degree) something is formally
possible;
2. Whether (and to what degree) something is feasible in
virtue of the means of implementation available;
3. Whether (and to what degree) something is appropriate
(adequate, happy, successful) in relation to a context in
which it is used and evaluated;
4. Whether (and to what degree) something is in fact
done, actually performed, and what its doing entails.
(281)*
Competences, D. Newby
25
… to make judgements
about peoples
Letter to the appearance that day, to
Observer from a busy I suppose
Bradford discussing there
teacher. childrens progress, I
hope they felt the same
way about my attire.
Competences, D. Newby
27
I/me – subject/object?
Update - D. Newby
28
Subject or object?
Update - D. Newby
29
Changes in grammar
Older form/usage Newer form/usage
1. You shall do your You must do your homework
homework immediately. immediately.
2. It was different from what It was different than we
we expected. expected.
3. If he were here you could If he was here you could ask
ask him. him.
4. I feel as if I were in prison. I feel like I was in prison.
5. Do it just as I tell you. Do it just like I tell you.
6. We have fewer students We have less students than
than last year. last year.
7. A large number of students. A large amount of students.
8. / He has got to be one of the
best footballers in the world!
Variety in grammar
More informal More formal
1 Can I go to the toilet? May I use your telephone?
Chomskyan view
While ‘performance’ is something of a residual category for the theory,
clearly its most salient connotation is that of imperfect manifestation of
underlying system. (272)*
Performing or performed?
When one speaks of performance, then, does one mean the behavioral
data of speech? or all that underlies speech beyond the grammatical? or
both? (…) The difficulty can be put in terms of the two contrasts that usage
manifests:
1. (underlying) competence v. (actual) performance;
2. (underlying) grammatical competence v. (underlying) models/rules of
performance. (281)*
Competences, D. Newby
32
Performance definitions
Competences, D. Newby
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Parameters of descriptive theory
speech community
speech situation
speech event
speech act
fluent speaker
components of speech events
function of speech etc. (53)**
Competences, D. Newby
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Speech community
Competences, D. Newby
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Speech event
Competences, D. Newby
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Communicative Event: competence + performance
Comm. Comp; Conceptual Comm. Comp;
Schematic Meaning Schematic
knowledge (grammar, knowledge
lexis)
Ideas Notions
Message/
Form
Purpose Function Outcome
Pragmatic
Meaning
(speech
Acts)
Competences, D. Newby
37
Context/Speech event
Competences, D. Newby
38
Halliday on context
Competences, D. Newby
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Halliday’s functional view of language
Competences, D. Newby
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Searle’s Speech Act theory
Competences, D. Newby
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Conceptual/semantic meaning
Competences, D. Newby
42
Applied linguistics - Widdowson
Competences, D. Newby
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Widdowson on grammatical errors
Competences, D. Newby
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Notions and functions
Competences, D. Newby
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Notional/functional inventories
Competences, D. Newby
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Communicative Competence, Canale and Swain (1980)
Competences, D. Newby
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Bachman: language competence
Competences, D. Newby
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Council of Europe publications
Competences, D. Newby
49
CEFR: Communicative language competence
Linguistic ‘lexical, phonological, syntactic knowledge and skills and
competences other dimensions of language as system’ (p.13).
Sociolinguistic ‘refer to the sociocultural conditions of language use’ (…)
competences ‘rules of politeness, norms governing behaviour between
generations, sexes, classes and social groups etc.’ (p.13)
Pragmatic:
competences
Functional ‘relating to the communicative function of utterances’
competences (production of language functions, speech acts)
Discourse ‘the mastery of discourse, cohesion and coherence, the
competences identification of text types and forms’ (p13) ‘relating to the
organising and structuring of texts’ (…) ‘drawing on
scenarios or scripts of interactional exchanges’ (p.123).
Competences, D. Newby
50
Additional competences in CEFR
Sociocultural ‘knowledge of the society and culture of the community or
knowledge communities in which a language is spoken’ (p.102)
(savoir)
Intercultural ‘knowledge, awareness and understanding of the relation
awareness (similarities and distinctive differences) between the “world
of origin” and the “world of the target community” produce
an intercultural awareness. (p.103)
Intercultural ‘- the ability to bring the culture of origin and the foreign
skills and know- culture into relation with each other;
how (savoir - cultural sensitivity and the ability to identify and use a
faire) variety of strategies for contact with those from other
cultures’ (p.104)
‘Existential’ ‘The development of an ‘intercultural personality’ involving
competence both attitudes and awareness is seen by many as an
(savoir être) important educational goal in its own right.’ (p.106)
Ability to learn ‘the ability to observe and participate in new experiences
and to incorporate new knowledge into existing knowledge,
Competences, D. Newby
modifying the latter where necessary..’ (p.106) 51
Analysing communication: Threshold Level (1975/1990).
1. Situations
a. Social roles: stranger/friend
b. Settings: restaurant, church, school
c. Topics: personal identification, house and home, free time
d. Behavioural specifications: describe their own house, say how they travel to
work, ask what things are called
2. Language activities
a) Language Functions, expressing pleasure, inquiring about preference
3. General notions: existence/non-existence, size, importance, frequency
4. Specific notions:
a) lexical: name, signature, letter
b) grammatical: referring to indefinite past time (experience), expressing
possibility (can)
5. Language forms of specific notions (lexical and grammatical)
Competences, D. Newby
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CEFR – From competence to performance
Competences, D. Newby
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CEFR: competence + performance
Comm. Comp; Comm. Comp;
Schematic COMPETENCE Schematic
knowledge knowledge
Ideas Notions
Message/
Form
Purpose Function Outcome
PERFORMANCE
Competences, D. Newby
54
CEFR: competence + performance
Comm. Comp; Comm. Comp;
Schematic COMPETENCE Schematic
knowledge knowledge
Ideas Notions
Message/
Form
Purpose Function Outcome
PERFORMING PERFORMED
Competences, D. Newby
55
Austria and
the Council of
Europe
The Council
of Europe
EPOSTL
Common European European
Threshold International
Framework Language
Level of Reference Portfolio Projects
CEF - Newby
56
The influence of the Council of Europe on language teaching in Austria
Common European
Framework
of Reference
European
Language
(CEFR)
Portfolio
(ELP)
CEF - Newby
57
Competences, D. Newby
58
Questions raised by CEFR
Competences, D. Newby
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Issues in specifying competence
CEF - Newby
60
Common reference levels of language proficiency
horizontal Dimension
= parameters of human activity and communicative
language competence (descriptors)
vertical Dimension
= an ascending series of common reference levels for
describing learner proficiency (scales)
(CEF, p16)
CEF - Newby
61
Two dimensions of assessment grid
C2 Can …
C1 Can …
B2 Can …
B1 Can …
A2 Can …
A1 Can …
CEF - Newby
62
The Common Reference Levels
Basic User
Breakthrough – A1
Waystage – A2
Independent User
Threshold – B1
Vantage – B2
Proficient User
Effective Operational Proficiency – C1
Mastery – C2
CEF - Newby
63
The Common Reference Levels in Austria
Unterstufe
Breakthrough – A1
Waystage – A2
Oberstufe
Threshold – B1
Vantage – B2 Matura
University
Effective Operational Proficiency – C1
Mastery – C2
CEF - Newby
64
Criteria for descriptors
Description issues
Context-free
Basedon theories of language
competence
Measurement issues
Objectivelydetermined (based on theory
of measurement)
Number of levels – adequate to show
progression, make distinctions
CEF - Newby
65
Assessment needs
CEF - Newby
66
CEFR – From competence to performance
Competences, D. Newby
67
What criteria must CEF meet?
comprehensive
transparent
coherent
Competences, D. Newby
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Coherence
Competences, D. Newby
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‘Can Do’ categories
Competences, D. Newby
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Overall Spoken Interaction
C2 Has a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms with awareness of
connotative levels of meaning. Can convey finer shades of meaning precisely by using, with
reasonable accuracy, a wide range of modification devices. Can backtrack and restructure
around a difficulty so smoothly the interlocutor is hardly aware of it.
C1 Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously, almost effortlessly. Has a good command
of a broad lexical repertoire allowing gaps to be readily overcome with circumlocutions. There is
little obvious searching for expressions or avoidance strategies; only a conceptually difficult
subject can hinder a natural, smooth flow of language.
Can use the language fluently, accurately and effectively on a wide range of general, academic,
vocational or leisure topics, marking clearly the relationships between ideas. Can communicate
B2
spontaneously with good grammatical control without much sign of having to restrict what
he/she wants to say, adopting a level of formality appropriate to the circumstances.
Can communicate with some confidence on familiar routine and non-routine matters related to
his/her interests and professional field. Can exchange, check and confirm information, deal with
B1
less routine situations and explain why something is a problem. Can express thoughts on more
abstract, cultural topics such as films, books, music etc.
Can interact with reasonable ease in structured situations and short conversations, provided the
other person helps if necessary. Can manage simple, routine exchanges without undue effort;
A2
can ask and answer questions and exchange ideas and information on familiar topics in
predictable everyday situations.
Can interact in a simple way but communication is totally dependent on repetition at a slower
A1 rate of speech, rephrasing and repair. Can ask and answer simple questions, initiate and
respond to simple statements in areas of immediate need or on very familiar topics.
Competences, D. Newby
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Educational principles reflected in CEFR
Learner autonomy
Intercultural awareness
‘Communicative’ view of language
Life-long learning
Reflective mode
Competences, D. Newby
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Competences, D. Newby
74
Sprachenportfolio – Sekundarstufe II
Sprachenpass
Sprachenbiographie
a. meine Sprachlerngeschichte/ interkulturelle Erfahrungen
b. Lerntipps
c. Sprachen-checklisten
d. Interkulturelle Erfahrungen
Dossier
a. persönliche Arbeiten
b. Zeugnisse, Zertifikate, Bestätigungen
c. ausgefüllte Checklisten
Competences, D. Newby
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Competences, D. Newby
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Competences, D. Newby
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Competences, D. Newby
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CEFR: competence + performance
Comm. Comp; 5 Comm. Comp;
Schematic Schematic
knowledge knowledge
4
6 7
2
Processes & strategies
Ideas Notions
Message/
Form
Purpose Function Outcome
Competences, D. Newby
79
EPOSTL
Competences, D. Newby 80
EPOSTL
B1. Can read straightforward factual 1. I can select texts appropriate to the
texts on subjects related to his/her needs, interests and language level of
field and interest with a satisfactory the learners.
level of comprehension.
Competences, D. Newby 83
EPOSTL
B1. Can read straightforward factual texts 1. I can select texts appropriate to the
on subjects related to his/her field and needs, interests and language level of
interest with a satisfactory level of the learners.
comprehension.
B1. Can scan longer texts in order to 5. I can set different activities in order
locate desired information, and gather to practise and develop different
information from different parts of a text, reading strategies according to the
or from different texts in order to fulfil a purpose of reading (skimming,
specific task. scanning etc.).
Competences, D. Newby 84
EPOSTL
B1. Can read straightforward factual texts 1. I can select texts appropriate to the
on subjects related to his/her field and needs, interests and language level of the
interest with a satisfactory level of learners.
comprehension.
B1. Can scan longer texts in order to 5. I can set different activities in order to
locate desired information, and gather practise and develop different reading
information from different parts of a text, strategies according to the purpose of
or from different texts in order to fulfil a reading (skimming, scanning etc.).
specific task.
B2. Can understand articles and reports 9. I can help learners to develop critical
concerned with contemporary problems in reading skills (reflection, interpretation,
which the writers adopt particular stances analysis etc.).
or viewpoints.
Competences, D. Newby 85
EPOSTL
EPOSTL
Didactic/teacher-based:
Competences, D. Newby 87
European Documents
CEF - Newby
88