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IMS for the Teachers of English Kaliningrad, Russia November 6-9, 2012 Stephen Stoynoff

IMS for the Teachers of English Kaliningrad, Russia November 6-9, 2012 Stephen Stoynoff. “ On the path to Crystal Mountain ” : A Trek and ELT in the 21 st Century . September 28, 1973.

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IMS for the Teachers of English Kaliningrad, Russia November 6-9, 2012 Stephen Stoynoff

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  1. IMS for the Teachers of EnglishKaliningrad, RussiaNovember 6-9, 2012Stephen Stoynoff “On the path to Crystal Mountain”: A Trek and ELT in the 21st Century

  2. September 28, 1973 “There are no roads west of Pokhara, Nepal, which is the last outpost of the modern world; in one day’s walk we are a century away.” The Snow Leopard (p. 21)

  3. Annapurna One

  4. Mountain Village

  5. The trek can be a metaphor for our professional journey and for how we approach our work as language teachers • Underscore the significance of our endeavor • Acknowledge several important trends in the field of English Language Teaching • Identify the most important challenge ahead • Suggest how to respond to it

  6. The significance of our endeavor • Affects billions of learners worldwide • Involves millions of teachers • Represents enormous investment of public and private resources • Has profound consequences for learners and society

  7. Four recent developments with implications for language teachers • Consensus on what constitutes communicative language ability (CLA) • Adoption of standards-based curricula • Alignment of assessments with curricula • Development of assessments based on local circumstances and needs

  8. Current conceptualization of second language (L2) ability • The prevailing view is L2 ability consists of linguistic and pragmatic knowledge and language use involves a set of multiple sub-competencies that interact in a particular language use situation. • What is less clear is how many factors are involved and how they are related to each other. • The idea of functional communicative ability emerged in the 1980s (Canale & Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983) based on earlier work by Hymes (1972) and Halliday (1973). Since its introduction, the construct has been elaborated and extended by many others (e.g., Bachman, 1990; Chapelle, Grabe, & Berns, 1997; Weir, 2005; and others).

  9. The influence of the communicative language ability (CLA) perspective on L2 teaching • Lessons that emphasize a set of functions, situations, and the relative competence displayed by language users across a range of ability levels as exemplified by the CEFR (Council of Europe, 2001) • Lessons that emphasize the performance of relevant tasks in a language use situation (McNamara, 1996; Norris, 2002) • Lessons that emphasize the discourse that emerges from language users’ interaction in social contexts and the co-construction of meaning that occurs (Chalhoub-Deville & Deville, 2005)

  10. How do these theoretical developments benefit English language teachers? • They offer teachers a rational basis for selecting the content, tasks, and assessment procedures they use in their courses. • When teachers use theory and research findings to design language courses and construct assessments, they increase the likelihood of promoting learners’ CLA.

  11. What implications do the four developments I mentioned have for teachers? • Teachers need to understand what contributes to communicative language ability. • Teachers need to understand standards-based approaches to L2 teaching and learning. • Based on local circumstances, teachers need to be able to select and in many cases, develop appropriate language assessments, administer them properly, interpret the results correctly, and use the results responsibly.

  12. Most teachers will need to become more assessment literate in the years ahead if they are going to select or develop and use language assessments effectively • Published resources • Web-based resources • Professional organizations • Educational institutions • Peers

  13. Assessment publications • Reference books (Cambridge Language Assessment Series, Cambridge Studies in Language Testing, Volume 7 Language Testing and Assessment in the Encyclopedia of Language and Education) • Journals (Language Assessment Quarterly and Language Testing) • Research centers’ and non-profit organizations’ reports (CRESST, CREDE, NCEL, RELC, Cambridge ESOL)

  14. Web-based resources • Web sites (CAL, TESOL, ILTA, APEC, Glenn Fulcher) • Web-based professional development in assessment (CAL’s assessment tutorial, Annenberg L2 assessment workshop, ILTA’s streaming video interviews)

  15. Professional meetings • IATEFL, TESOL and NATE Annual Conferences, Regional Meetings, & Seminars • Association for Language Testers in Europe (ALTE) • European Association for Language Testing and Assessment (EALTA) • Current Trends in English Language Testing (CTELT)

  16. Educational institutions • Language testing at Lancaster summer program (Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK) • TESOL Summer Institute at American University (American University,Washington, D.C., USA) • Distance education courses offered by major universities (University of Maryland, Baltimore County and University of Oregon)

  17. Peers • International electronic discussion groups (TESL-L and LTEST-L) • Local electronic discussion groups • Peer study and support groups

  18. Professional development in language assessment • Requires “an appropriate balance of technical know-how, practical skills, theoretical knowledge, and understanding of principles…”(Taylor, 2009, p. 270). • The optimal balance among these four considerations will depend upon the stage of the teacher’s career, employment context, and professional responsibilities. • Therefore, professional development in language assessment should be considered an ongoing process rather than a competence that is mastered at a particular point in a teacher’s career.

  19. November 1, 1973 “High to the west, a white pyramid sails on the sky--the Crystal Mountain”(p. 185)

  20. November 11, 1973 “Having got here at last, I do not wish to leave the Crystal Mountain. I’m in pain about it, truly, so much so that I have to smile; or I might weep”(p. 232)

  21. What did I learn on the path to Crystal Mountain? • Set ambitious professional goals • Persist in important endeavors • Gauge your progress • Recognize the challenges in your path • When you see what lies ahead, prepare for it.

  22. Crystal Mountain

  23. Useful Web Sites • Annenberg series on teaching foreign languages (http://www.learner.org/workshops/tfl/) • Center for Research on Education, Diversity, & Excellence (http://www.crede.ucsc.edu) • Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (http://cresst96.cse.ucla.edu) • National Center for English Language (http://www.ltrc.unimelb.edu.au/resources/index.html) • Regional English Language Centre (http://www.relc.org.sg) • Cambridge ESOL (http://www.cambridgeesol.org) • Educational Testing Service (http://www.ets.org/portal/site/etsmenuitem) • Center for Applied Linguistics (http://www.cal.org)

  24. Useful Web Sites (continued) • Glenn Fulcher’s Resources in Language Testing Page (http://www.le.ac.uk/education/testing/ltrfileframe.html) • Fulcher’s Key Concepts in Language Assessment streaming video (http://www.le.ac.uk.education/testing/ilta/faqs/main.html) • Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation language assessment wiki site (http://www.hrd.apecwiki.org/index.php/Language_Assessment) • DIALANG assessment site (http://www.lancs.ac.uk/researchenterprise/dialang/about) • Association of Language Testers in Europe (http://www.alte.org) • TESOL web cast (http://tesol.org/s_tesol/seccss.asp) • International Language Testing Association (http://www.iltaonline.com/)

  25. Selected Print Resources • Bachman, L., & Palmer, A. (2010). Language assessment in practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. • Brown, H. D., & Abeywickrama, P. (2010). Language assessment: Principles and practices (2nd ed.). White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman. • Brown, J. D., & Hudson, T. (2002). Criterion-referenced language testing. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. • Fulcher, G., & Davidson, F. (2007). Language testing and assessment: An advanced resource book. London: Routledge. • Genesee, F., & Upshur, J. (1996). Classroom-based evaluation in second language education. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. • Hughes, A. (2003). Testing for language teachers(2nd ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. • Shohamy, E., & Hornberger, N.H. (2008). (Eds.). Encyclopedia of language education (2nd ed.) volume 7: Language testing and assessment. New York: Springer. • ALTE (2011). Manual for language test development and examining.

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