Our study investigated the differences in low-level L1 skills and L2 reading, listening, and reading-while-listening outcomes between young dyslexic and non-dyslexic Slovenian learners of English. The research, in which children completed four language assessment tasks in three modes in a carefully counter-balanced order, also examined the relationship between low-level L1 skills and L2 reading, listening, and reading-while-listening performance. The findings show that, in Slovenian, which is a transparent language, dyslexic students are behind their non-dyslexic peers in word-level L1 skills after five years of literacy instruction. The results also call attention to the fact that students with weak L2 reading and listening skills might not always be at risk of, or diagnosed as having, dyslexia. Importantly, the findings suggest that the accuracy and speed of real and non-word reading in L1 might serve as useful indicators of L2 reading difficulties of young language learners. Furthermore, L1 dictation tests were also found to yield diagnostic information on young L2 learners’ listening and reading-while-listening problems.

One of the special arrangements in testing contexts is to allow dyslexic students to listen to the text while they read. In our study, we investigated the effect of read-aloud assistance on young English learners' language comprehension scores. We also examined whether students with dyslexia identification benefit from this assistance differently from their peers with no official identification of dyslexia.Our research was conducted with young Slovenian learners of English who performed four language assessment tasks adapted from a standardized battery of Slovenian national English language tests. In a counter-balanced design, 233 students with no identified dyslexia and 47 students with dyslexia identification completed two language comprehension tasks in a readingonly condition, one task with read-aloud assistance and one task in listening-only mode. We used Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Modelling (GLMM) to estimate accurately the effects of Article Language Testing 36(1) the mode of administration, dyslexia status, and input text difficulty, while accounting for error variance owing to random differences between students, texts, and questions.The results of our study revealed that young L2 learners with no dyslexia identification performed similarly in the three conditions. The read-aloud assistance, however, was found to increase the comprehension scores of dyslexic participants when reading difficult texts, allowing them to perform at the level of their non-dyslexic peers. Therefore, our study suggests that this modification of the test administration mode might assist dyslexic students in demonstrating their text comprehension abilities.

Contributions from seven European countries pinpoint major projects, problems, and prospects of reforming public language assessment procedures. Each country has faced unique problems in the reform process, yet there have also been several common themes emerging, such as a focus on multilingualism, communicative skills, standardization, reference to the CEFR and certification. Future work needs to develop these themes further and to study impact and support issues as well.

Hace unos años los programas centrados en el alumno hicieron que una parte del debate en didáctica de lenguas extranjeras discurriera en torno al nuevo papel del profesor. Los cambios metodológicos introducidos han hecho su labor mucho más compleja, de manera que se ha impuesto una nueva discusión sobre cómo desarrollar la competencia docente para abordar las nuevas tareas. Este artículo pretende revisar los cambios producidos y aproximarse a las propuestas de la enseñanza reflexiva para enriquecer el conocimiento profesional mediante la toma de conciencia por parte del docente de su propia concepción de la enseñanza. Palabras clave: papel del profesor, creencias del profesor, enseñanza reflexiva, competencia docente. New Tasks for the Teacher of Spanish as Foreign Language: a Reflection on Teaching Beliefs ABSTRACT: Some years ago, the student-centered programs caused part of the debate related to the teaching of foreign languages to focus on the new role of the teacher. The introduced methodological changes have made the work of the teacher much more complex and resulted to a discussion on how to develop the teacher competences in order to allow tackling the new tasks. This paper aims to review some of the changes and to discuss the reflective teaching and enrich professional knowledge by making teachers aware of the learning-teaching process conception

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