Adapting the CEFR to enhance language graduates’ employability

1. Adapting the CEFR to enhance language graduates’ employability Marga Menendez-Lopez Dr. Doris Dippold University of Surrey

2. Objectives • to set the context for languages in UK higher education • to present, by way of the case study of an oral module, how the CEFR as a tool and frameworks of communicative competence can be adapted to a curriculum that highlights professional skills • to show how language degrees contribute to employability

3. Languages & Employability • QAA: languages > multifaceted • Intellectual • Vocational • Transferable • Recent history of language departments • Reduction on student numbers • Globalised market and student choices • Perception of language degrees • language skills vs. subject matter • lack of economic impact factor

4. Language strategy at Surrey • University: professional and international vision statement • Our degrees: • languages for the professional world • joint language honours or combinations with other subject (Business, Law or Politics) • merge of linguistic + transferable skills • experts on communication theory + expert communicators! • all aspects of communicative competence

5. Common European Framework of Reference • Council of Europe 1989-1996 • 5 skills: listening, reading, writing, spoken production & interaction • six proficiency levels • outcome-based statements of linguistic skills • e.g. “I can give a clear , systematically developed presentation on a topic in my area of work, study or special interest, highlighting significant points and relevant supporting detail.” • guidelines NOT rules! – need to adapt to specific contexts and to underpin by theory

6. Critiques to the CEFR • little/unsystematic correlation with aspects of communicative competence • Language levels = age of learner • no specific contexts taken into account • static and unnegotiable

8. Communicative competence numerous models (e.g. Celce-Murcia et. al. 1995; Bachman 1990; Canale & Swain 1980) competence (knowledge of language) vs. performance (actual use of language in concrete situations) communicative competence: some competences negotiable – not taken account by CEFR!

9. Communicative competence Celce-Murcia et al. 1995: • Discourse competence • Linguistic competence • Strategic competence • Sociocultural competence • Actional competence

10. Adapting the CEFR to an Oral module • Level 1 B2 Oral module (French, German, Spanish) • Bring to life B2 oral descriptors • Academic and professional contexts • Linguistic theory to underpin language learning • Integration of all competences for these contexts

11. Adapting the CEFR to an Oral module

12. Benefits & Challenges • “Professional professional communicators” • academic language learning • Prescriptive (models) and descriptive (reflection)  teaching and research • Generic communication skills: employability! • Theoretically underpinned by CEFR and competence frameworks • Linguistic / Sociolinguistic basis: • Authenticity vs. pedagogic requirements • language degree for the professional world: relevant for society and economy

13. References • Bachman, Lyle (1990): Fundamental Considerations in Language Testing. Oxford, Oxford University Press. • Canale, Michael (1983): From Communicative Competence to Communicative Language Pedagogy. In: Language and Communication. J. Richards and R. Schmidt. New York, Longman: 2-27. • Canale, Michael and Merrill Swain (1980): Theoretical Bases of Communicative Approaches to Second Language Teaching and Testing. Applied Linguistics 1(1): 1-47. • Celce-Murcia et al. (1995): Communicative Competence: A Pedagogically Motivated Model with Content Specifications. Issues in Applied Linguistics 6(2): 5-35. • Coleman, James A. (2004): Modern Languages in British Universities: Past and Present. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 3: 147-162. • Council for Industry and Higher Education (2008): Graduate employability: what do employers think and want? Available: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/business/doc/graduate_en.pdf (accessed May 12 2009). • Council of Europe (2001): Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. Cambridge: CUP. • Figueras, Neus (2007): The CEFR, a Lever for the Improvement of Language Professionals in Europe. The Modern Language Journal 91: 673-675.

14. References • James, Carl and Peter Garrett (1992): Language Awareness in the Classroom. London: Longman. • Kelly, Michael and Diana Jones (2003): A New Landscape for Languages. London: Nuffield Foundation. Available: http://languages.nuffieldfoundation.org/filelibrary/pdf/languages_report_48pp_hires.pdf • Krumm, Hans-Jürgen (2007): Profiles Instead of Levels: The CEFR and Its (Ab)Uses in the Context of Migration. The Modern Language Journal 91: 667-669. • Little, David (2005): The Common European Framework and the European Language Portfolio: involving learners and their judgements in the assessment process. Language Testing 22(3): 321-336. • Little, David (2007): The Common European Framework of References for Languages: Perspectives on the Making of Supranational Language Education Policy. The Modern Language Journal 91: 645-655. • North, Brian (2007): The CEFR Illustrative Descriptor Scales. The Modern Language Journal 91: 656-663. • Quality Assurance Agency (2007, 12/2007): Subject benchmark statements: Languages and Related Studies. QAA 208 12/07. Available: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/benchmark/statements/languages07.pdf (accessed May 12 2009). • Weir, C.J. (2005): Limitations of the Common European Framework for developing comparable examinations and tests. Language Testing 22: 281-300.

15. Questions m.menendez-lopez@surrey.ac.uk d.dippold@surrey.ac.uk