Aligning with the CEFR at the Pre-Basic Level – Innovations and Challenges Galina Gordishevsky, Efrat Harel, Adi Gafni Kibbutzim College of Education H-INET International Spring Conference 27 February 2018 Tel Aviv University

Can-do statements of the CEFR in the syllabus Name of Domain Students can understand short and relatively simple texts. Reading Students will enrich their everyday and academic vocabulary.  Vocabulary Students can write simple phrases and sentences about familiar topics.  Writing Students can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and phrases. Students can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have and do. Speaking Students can follow straightforward short talks on familiar topics provided these are delivered in clearly articulated standard speech Listening

Have we achieved these purposes? Can-Dos Name of Domain Students can understand short and relatively simple texts. YES Reading Students will enrich their everyday and academic vocabulary.  Vocabulary Students can write simple phrases and sentences about familiar topics.  YES Writing Students can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and phrases. YES Students can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have and do. ?? Speaking Students can follow straightforward short talks on familiar topics provided these are delivered in clearly articulated standard speech. YES Listening

Implementation of this framework Bottom-up as well as top-down strategies Integrative units Testing Contributions and limitations

Bottom-up as well as top-down strategies The starting point: listing the language topics and skills which should be covered in the course, for example sentence structure, parts of speech; ways of learning new words, eye-catching features. Devoting some class time for direct explanations of, e.g., sentence structure in English and tense identification (in general)  Bottom-up Exposing students to unfamiliar structures and words in written as well as audio excerpts  Top-down

Integrative Units Structured as follows: Text & questions Vocabulary (text-related) Language strategy, e.g. parts of speech, sentence structure, references Short video on the topic An opinion question Vocabulary game: Quizlet / Kahoot

Integrative units Products Used: Quizlet Quizlet Live Ted-ed Online Quiz Padlet Padlet: prefixes and suffixes

Quizlet

Quizlet live

Ted-ed

Padlet

Padlet – another example

Testing Involves a number of stages A number of strategies are tested Are all skills tested equally? Not yet… Advantages and limitations Students’ feedback

Staged testing Online quizzes and assignments throughout the semester A number of quizzes during class time Intermediary quiz in the format of the final Final exam which consists of a few parts and tests a number of skills

Online quizzes and assignments Vocabulary for each text studied: Quizlet, Moodle quizzes Connectors: completion, identification Parts of speech and sentence structure Writing: expressing an opinion on Padlet Listening: a short YouTube episode/Ted lecture followed by comprehension questions and opinion questions - writing

In-class quizzes Vocabulary – translation, sentence completion, finding synonyms, at a later stage: matching a word to its explanation in English Connectors – sentence completion Parts of speech and sentence structure

Intermediary quiz (IQ) & final exam (FE) Each consists of three parts: Short academic text ( IQ: 400-500 words FE: 700-800 words ) Vocabulary: synonyms from the text Connectors

To sum up: type of testing / domain tested Can-dos / Type of quiz Name of Domain Students can understand short and relatively simple texts. Intermediary quiz – academic text 400-500 words, final exam – academic texts 700-800 words Reading Students will enrich their everyday and academic vocabulary. Online HW quizzes, in-class quizzes, intermediary quiz and final Vocabulary Students can write simple phrases and sentences about familiar topics.  Online assignments – expressing opinion on Padlet, in-class quizzes – sentence completion Writing Students can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and phrases. Students can introduce themselves and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where they live, people they know and things they have and do. Practiced in class, not tested this year, goal for the future Speaking Students can follow straightforward short talks on familiar topics provided these are delivered in clearly articulated standard speech Online TED/You-Tube assignments Listening

Contributions Continuous testing splits the grade into smaller components triggers numerous repetitions predictability -> alleviates stress tests most of the skills, rather than only RC (vocabulary, reading, writing, listening)

Limitations Are all skills tested equally? Not yet… Speaking is the most challenging skill at the lowest levels Can A1 level students reach B1/B2 level within three/four semesters?

Some feedback from our students It seems that we were not the only people to enjoy this whole process; the students also seemed to enjoy studying and cooperating. However, next time, a survey asking the students for detailed feedback should be distributed.

From the students’ feedback: "החומר נבנה בצורה הדרגתית והותאם לכל הרמות. יש תחושה של למידה ושיפור" "שיעורי הבית והמטלות המקוונות עזרו מאוד להבנת החומר ולתרגול המתמיד.. הבחנים כמעט פעם בשבועיים המעיטו את הפחדים" "התחלתי לאהוב אנגלית! השיעורים הפכו למעניינים ותורמים לרכישת השפה בייחוד בזכות הפעילויות בשיעור(קהות, שירים)"

Thank you