Local problems and a global solution: examining the recontextualization of CEFR in Thai and Malaysian language policies

Savski, Kristof

doi:10.1007/s10993-019-09539-8

Cited by 28 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 40 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Over the two decades since the original version was released, the framework has seen wide uptake, very rapidly moving beyond the borders of the European continent (Byram & Parmenter, 2012) and becoming a prime example of a globalized language policy (Savski, 2020). This global spread has been powered by two forces in particular, namely its uptake by national governments across the globe as a means of objective-setting and evaluation (De Costa et al, 2019;Franz & Teo, 2018), and its adoption by the ELT industry (corporations involved in test and textbook development) as a means of comparing different products (e.g., IELTS scores with TOEFL scores).…”

Section: Cefr In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Promoting agency among teachers is a particularly key concern when it comes to CEFR, as the embeddedness of the framework in top-down structural forces in language education can quickly leave users with little sense of power. National policies, for instance, often make use of the framework to dictate learning goals at particular stages (e.g., B1 by the end of secondary education), aligning such objectives with broader aspirations for development (Savski, 2020;, thus leaving little scope for teachers to act as policy arbiters by, for instance, using the framework to estimate what their students can do and what their learning objectives should be.…”

Section: Facilitating Gelt With Cefr: Considering Conditions and Blin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) is a particularly visible global language policy, originally enacted by the Council of Europe (a non-governmental organization) but since adopted by a number of different actors. As discussed by Savski (2020;in press), key among these are global testing organizations and textbook publishers, which typically use CEFR as a neutral point of reference, as well as national governments, most notably in Asia those of China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Vietnam. The use of CEFR is justified by these national governments as a key step toward improving English proficiency, seen as a key precondition for continued economic and political integration in Asia, as well as part of overall social development (Savski, 2020).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

CEFR: A Global Framework for Global Englishes?

Savski¹,

Prabjandee²

2022

TESL-EJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Since it was first published by the Council of Europe in 2001, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) has become one of the most widely referenced documents in language education, particularly in English language teaching and assessment (Savski, in press). The recently released CEFR Companion Volume (2020), with its new descriptions of plurilingual and pluricultural competence and mediation, has done much to extend the potential of the framework, as it provides a more concrete foundation for using CEFR to support heteroglossic pedagogies. In this way, CEFR has acquired a greater level of potential relevance to innovative pedagogies in English language education, such as Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT), which seeks to equip learners with communicative skills and dispositions needed for success in a world where the target interlocutors are linguistically and culturally diverse (Rose & Galloway, 2019). In this paper, we examine the prospects for using CEFR to support heteroglossic pedagogies like GELT, highlighting points of convergence between descriptions of competence in CEFR and current scholarship in Global Englishes, as well as points of divergence between the two. We underline the need to embed CEFR in decentralizing educational reforms, in which the framework is used to facilitate teacher agency, rather than to impose objectives and methods upon them.

show abstract

Section: Cefr In Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Facilitating Gelt With Cefr: Considering Conditions and Blin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

CEFR: A Global Framework for Global Englishes?

Savski¹,

Prabjandee²

2022

TESL-EJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As most researches focused on the descriptors, levels and assessments, it's imperative to incorporate plurilingualism as well as plural culturalism to maximize the impact of the framework on the outcomes produced in Malaysia education context. Instead, the idea of plurilingualism is silenced and substituted with the word "international" as a means to cover the broad horizon of CEFR (Savski, 2020).…”

Section: Conclusion and Implicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR): A Review on Teachers’ Perception & Plurilingualism

Abidin¹,

Hashim²

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Common Framework of Reference (CEFR) is a document produced by the council of Europe (CoE) to set a standard for teaching and learning English as the Second Language (ESL). Propelled by the need to situate Malaysia English language parallel to the standard of the European countries, the Ministry of Education Malaysia rushed the adaptation of CEFR framework into Malaysia education system. Teachers' lack of training and understanding on CEFR as well as unsuitable content used in the textbook are among the main challenges faced by teachers to name a few. Nonetheless, the key concept of Plurilingualism which served as the principle in CEFR has been given very minimal focus in the syllabus. Considering Malaysia as a multilingual and multicultural country, there is a potential of English Second Language learners to benefit from the concept of plurilingualism given appropriate training and exposure given to the teachers as the gatekeeper of knowledge and information. In fact, plurilingualism could also be the missing piece that could help aid teachers' understanding of the framework better.

show abstract

“…The CEFR and the CEFR Companion Volume are useful and well-known tools used in many European contexts. They have also been adapted for some non-European contexts where the CEFR impacted local language policies (Canada, Thailand, Malaysia, Uzbekistan) or the way languages were described, assessed or taught (Japanese, Arabic), as described, among others, by Salwa (2021, Savski (2020, Soliman (2017) or Khatamova (2018). However, the implementation of the CEFR has mostly been concerned spoken languages, i.e., audio-oral languages.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development of a Framework of Reference for Sign Languages and Reference Level Descriptors for Czech Sign Language

Hulešová¹

2022

CEFR Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The CEFR is a well-known, useful, and widely exploited tool used for many European languages, as well as in some non- European language contexts. Most of the contexts where the CEFR is used concern spoken languages. However, regarding sign languages, there have only been a few attempts to explore how the CEFR might be adapted and modified. In 2019, a CEFR-related project started in the Czech Republic (as one of five key activities of a bigger project – called APIV A – that concerned inclusion of users of first languages other than Czech) with the original aim of adapting the outcomes of the ProSign project1 led by The European Centre for Modern Languages, which basically meant creating proficiency scales for the description of Czech Sign Language. However, it became clear that a mere translation or a slight adaptation is neither possible nor appropriate. Therefore, the project became much broader, and, in the end, two original comprehensive and interrelated documents were developed: a general Framework of Reference for Sign Languages and a more specific Reference Level Descriptors of Czech Sign Language. Both documents are bilingual: in written Czech and translated into Czech Sign Language. Three main topics are discussed in this article. Firstly, the content and the processes by which these two documents were planned and published are described. The rationale for their development is presented, and the approaches, including blind alleys, doubts and their solutions discussed. Secondly, challenges faced by the writing team are presented, for instance the collaboration of Deaf and hearing colleagues, the collaboration of hearing linguists with Czech Sign Language teachers with no linguistic background, terminological issues, given that sign languages in general, and the Czech sign language specifically, are so-called less-taught languages. Finally, problems and challenges related to the features of the Czech deaf community, such as the specificity of culture, language modalities, the absence of standardisation, research, and the lack of recognition of the language as a fully-fledged code, are presented.

show abstract

Local problems and a global solution: examining the recontextualization of CEFR in Thai and Malaysian language policies

Cited by 28 publications

References 40 publications

CEFR: A Global Framework for Global Englishes?

CEFR: A Global Framework for Global Englishes?

Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR): A Review on Teachers’ Perception & Plurilingualism

Development of a Framework of Reference for Sign Languages and Reference Level Descriptors for Czech Sign Language

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Local problems and a global solution: examining the recontextualization of CEFR in Thai and Malaysian language policies

Cited by 28 publications

References 40 publications

CEFR: A Global Framework for Global Englishes?

CEFR: A Global Framework for Global Englishes?

Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR): A Review on Teachers’ Perception &amp; Plurilingualism

Development of a Framework of Reference for Sign Languages and Reference Level Descriptors for Czech Sign Language

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR): A Review on Teachers’ Perception & Plurilingualism