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SUMMARY:The English Profile Programme (1): Delivering descriptions of refe
 rence levels for English as a second language - Nick Saville (Cambridge ES
 OL)
DTSTART:20091109T170000Z
DTEND:20091109T183000Z
UID:TALK19568@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Ewa Illakowicz
DESCRIPTION:This talk provides an introduction to the English Profile Prog
 ramme\, including an overview of the innovative work being carried out in 
 Cambridge by researchers working with learner data. This team is interdisc
 iplinary and includes experts from the University’s Research Centre for 
 English and Applied Linguistics (RCEAL)\, the Computer Laboratories\, Camb
 ridge ESOL and Cambridge University Press.\n\nThe English Profile (EP) is 
 a long-term endeavour to develop and refine Reference Level Descriptions (
 RLDs) for English covering all six levels of the Common European Framework
  of Reference for Languages: learning\, teaching and assessment  (CEFR) fr
 om A1 to C2\, in line with the Council of Europe’s recommendations.  The
  outcomes will be a wide range of research and reference documents which w
 ill be released online and in print starting in 2010. \n\nThe talk will pr
 ovide an historical perspective\, including the work of Dr John Trim and P
 rof Jan Van Ek who produced the Threshold series of specifications between
  the mid 1970s and the late 1990s\,  recent developments which have occurr
 ed since the CEFR was launched in 2001. The speaker will then highlight so
 me of the innovative features of the EP research programme which distingui
 sh it from previous work including its empirical dimension using learner d
 ata\, psycholinguistic considerations and a focus on the impact of differe
 nt first languages and learning contexts on the development of English pro
 ficiency. \n\nA key tool being used in the research is the Cambridge Learn
 er Corpus (CLC) which is jointly owned and managed by Cambridge ESOL and C
 ambridge University Press.  This corpus currently contains 35 million word
 s of learner writing produced by candidates taking the Cambridge ESOL exam
 inations which is stored according to proficiency level with  relevant inf
 ormation about the writers age\, nationality\, gender\, first language\, e
 tc.\, as well as features of the writing tasks themselves. The design and 
 development  of the corpus will be outlined and ways in which it facilitat
 es the research programme will be discussed.\n\nThe empirical approach has
  already allowed the researchers to identify important criterial differenc
 es and developmental sequences which cannot be predicted by acquisition th
 eories alone. In addition\, the typological dimension allows for a detaile
 d analysis of transfer effects in patterns of use of different learners of
  English from different L1 backgrounds and different learning contexts.  A
 t a later stage\, these criterial features and transfer effects will be in
 corporated into reference documents with practical benefits for users. \n\
 n(The criterial features are one the aspect of the programme which Henriet
 te will cover in more detail in her talk)\n
LOCATION:Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, room GS5
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