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.
Abstract. The aim of this article is to explore the intercultural component (IC) in the English language curricula for the secondary and tertiary education in Latvia in the light of the new edition of Common European Framework of Language Learning, Teaching and Assessment Companion Volume with New Descriptors (CEFR, 2017) and compare it with the previous intercultural communication competence. The research method is documentary analysis of the three documents as regards their approach to intercultural communication. The analysis found that the documents were compatible, in spite of the difference of terminology, although CEFR (2017) aims at language users' sensitivity and awareness in action, the secondary school proposes tolerance and following the rules, the tertiary education curriculum suggests critical thinking and analysis of the cultural phenomena. The roles of the three documents and their development contexts explain these differences and allow each one of the documents to give their own contribution to IC, as long as the users of the documents understand their differences and shortcomings.
Raksts salīdzina ciešamās kārtas lietojuma biežumu latviešu un angļu medicīnas zinātniskajos rakstos. Balstoties uz Timotija D. Mintona (Timothy D. Minton 2015) veikto pētījumu par ciešamās kārtas lietojuma biežumu angļu valodā, veidots līdzīgs pētījums latviešu valodā. Pētījumā tiek izmantoti Rīgas Stradiņa universitātes 2014. gadā publicētie medicīnas pētījumi latviešu valodā, lai analizētu biežāk lietotos darbības un palīgdarbības vārdus, kas veido ciešamo kārtu. Secināts, ka latviešu valodā rakstoši medicīnas pētnieki ciešamo kārtu lieto retāk, taču izmanto tādās pašās funkcijās kā angļu valodā rakstoši medicīnas pētnieki.
The aim of this study is to compare the linguistic proficiency levels of lecturers and students, using an online lecture passage dictation as an anchor item between the two tests developed for students and lecturers. The article also reports on the use of the said dictation as a means of the assessment justification (Bachman, 2013) of the proficiency test offered via at a University in Latvia Moodle (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) system (Online 1), making the test available in different parts of the world. The main finding is that the lecturers and their students’ language proficiency is comparable when using Gary Buck’s (2001) and Common European Framework of Reference (2006) frameworks of phonological, orthographic, lexical, syntactical and discourse competence levels.
The aim of the study is to examine the syntactic pattern of the frequency of use of simple, complex and compound sentences focusing on different subordinate clauses as critical features in the written learner text corpora at different English and French language acquisition levels in the texts produced by secondary school test-takers in Latvia. The theoretical basis of the research is Pienemann’s Processability theory. For the purpose of quantitative and contrastive analysis of syntactic structures written learner text corpora in English and French have been compiled, in which different clauses have been marked by manual annotation and afterwards classified according to different syntactic patterns. Subordinate clauses have been grouped applying Dik’s taxonomy of embedded constructions. The preliminary research has discovered some similarities and differences between the syntactic pattern usage at the same language acquisition levels.
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