Language Matters

The biannual newsletter of the Language Research Centre

Fall 2016 Volume 7, Number 2

In This Issue Planning for the

future 1-2 Research groups 2-3

Connecting the dots 4-6

Together with the

community 7-10

Contact Us Website:

arts.ucalgary.ca/lrc

Director:

Olga Mladenova,

CH D413

omladeno@ucalgary.ca

LRC Administrator:

lrc@ucalgary.ca

Director’s Message

Dear Colleagues, Students & Friends of the Language Research Centre,

An era for the departments of Linguistics, Languages and Cultures and French, Italian and Spanish and the LRC came to an end on June 30, 2016 as the two departments teamed up to form the new School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures and the LRC, previously subordinated to the Faculty of Arts Dean’s Office, was incorporated into the new School.

At the same time the long fruitful term of the previous LRC director Dr. Mary O’Brien ran out. Under Dr. O’Brien’s leadership in 2009-2016 the LRC expanded beyond its initial mandate to undertake research on curricular, technological and cognitive aspects of language learning with emphasis on professional development for second-language teachers in Alberta at all levels, from beginner to advanced, K-12 to post-secondary, and became a dynamic interdisciplinary hub for research into second language acquisition and learning, spanning a variety of fields including modern languages, linguistics, education, psychology and sociology. LRC’s major initiatives were aimed at disseminating research, professional development, and community outreach, at the creation of tools for language teachers and administrators, and networking among researchers, educators, government and community members. The LRC owes its current status as an inclusive hub for research on language to Dr. O’Brien’s tireless efforts and her creative energy. The LRC gratefully acknowledges its debt to its outgoing director and sends her best wishes for success as she moves to the next phase in her life.

The year that began on July 1, 2016 will be a transition year for the LRC, a time to mold it as an inclusive space of the School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures for disciplinary but also multi and interdisciplinary research. It is a great honor for me to be involved with the LRC at this critical juncture of its development. Throughout the year I will be conducting a dialogue with SLLLC faculty members and other LRC stakeholders and allies about the future direction of the LRC within the School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures. Please do not hesitate to contact me with questions, concerns or ideas for events. Your input will be a decisive factor in shaping the LRC for its future role. The better attuned it is to our collective research needs, the better it will be able to serve them.

Olga M. Mladenova, LRC Director

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Upcoming Events

In 2016-2017 the LRC will reopen its doors to participants in the two speaker series “Language of Literature” and “Language Acquisition and Learning”, to the regular meetings of our psycholinguistic research group and Cercle Benveniste and to our traditional annual student poster symposium and “I’d like to know more about...” workshop.

Stay tuned for these and other events as they get scheduled and announced on the LRC website and to our mailing lists.

Psycholinguistics Lab Group -JeongEun Lee, PhD student, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures

During the winter semester of 2016, the psycholinguistics lab group met every two weeks to discuss current psycholinguistics and

neurolinguistics research. In particular, the group has spent time to exchange views and ideas about current experimental

methodology such as think-aloud-protocols and eye tracking and second language acquisition. In addition to the regular meetings for

presenting and discussing current research articles, the group also had two exciting events: Dr. Murray Munro’s talk on the multi-

dimensional nature of L2 pronunciation and a two-day eye-tracking training session. Dr. Munro is a leading researcher in the field of

second language phonetics. In this talk, the group had a chance to discuss methodological issues and current research trends in

second language acquisition in phonetics. The second event was to inform us ‘how-to-use’ an eye tracker, led by an Eye-Link

representative. This hands-on training involved running an eye-tracker, trouble-shooting as well as programming an eye-tracking

experiment with an Experiment Builder. The group will continue its exciting meetings in the fall semester.

New Perspectives -Dennis Storoshenko, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures In Winter of 2016, the LRC obtained a new EyeLink 1000 eye-tracking system. Paired with a dedicated computer to display images, this tabletop device uses infrared light to track the movements of a participant’s pupils. Not only windows to the soul, the eyes provide vital clues in the processing of language input. The system will have two core uses in the LRC: the first is for studies of reading. Paired with a minimally intrusive headrest, the eye-tracker measures gaze fixation on text with millisecond accuracy, allowing researchers not only to measure overall reading time, but to determine how long readers dwell on words (potentially a sign of confusion regarding the form or meaning of a certain word), and where they backtrack in the text (showing a reconsideration of the sentence structure or meaning). One of the key goals of this research within the LRC will be to compare the reading patterns of native versus non-native speakers of a given language, to determine whether there are differences in the ways that first and second languages are processed. Beyond reading tasks, the system can also be used in what is called the Visual World Paradigm. In these studies, participants hear a sentence or an instruction that is related to the image on screen, and eye movements are used to draw conclusions about linguistic processing. On the simplest level, this can be used to test word recognition: participants see a display containing a hamster, a ham, a pig, and a distractor such as a doll. Then, they are told “look at the hamster”. By measuring the time at which people fixate on the hamster, researchers studying sound can make conclusions on whether there is enough information in the audio signal to allow participants to distinguish ham from hamster before the “s” sound begins. More abstractly, this method can also be used to determine the meaning of ambiguous sentences. For example, participants see a display showing two girls, Donna and Martha, on a playing

Research groups

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field. Donna could be carrying a baseball bat, while Martha holds a soccer ball. Participants hear a short story about the two girls, ending with the sentence Donna told Martha on the field that she will win the baseball game. The sentence itself is ambiguous; “she” could refer to either of the two girls. If asked at the end of the story, participants will likely conclude that the pronoun must have referred to Donna, because she has the baseball bat. However, with the eyetracker, we can measure the unconscious eye movements that occur immediately after hearing the pronoun, but before getting the information that the sentence is about baseball: do participants look at Donna (the speaker in the story) or Martha (the addressee)? This unconscious eye movement gives researchers insight into how ambiguous sentences are processed before any additional context becomes available. By repeating this study across languages, we can determine whether different languages have different default ways of resolving this ambiguity. The usefulness of this research becomes clear when considering translation: an ambiguous sentence of one language might be most faithfully translated as an ambiguous sentence into another. However, it might be the case that readers of the source language have different default interpretations than the target language; tracking eye movements allows us to uncover these unconscious defaults. In short, the eyetracker will open new doors for all aspects of language research within the School of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics, and Cultures, ranging from distinguishing native from non-native reading strategies to theoretical questions around how the forms of sentences can be manipulated to influence ambiguity resolution.

Cercle Benveniste -Ozouf Sénamin Amedegnato, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures

LE CERCLE Les rencontres du Cercle Benveniste sont un forum de discussion où toute personne s’intéressant à la linguistique peut venir échanger et débattre des questions relatives aux sciences du langage. Il s’agit, en quelque sorte, d’une école péripatéticienne où les participants peuvent – justement et à l’instar d’Émile Benveniste – se promener dans les différents recoins de la discipline et en interroger les zones d’ombre, les aprioris, les impasses; bref, explorer différents aspects du langage, à la recherche de Problèmes de linguistique générale. Où? LRC CHD 412 - Quand? Vendredi (aux deux semaines) Le Cercle se réunira selon le calendrier ci-après:

POURQUOI ÉMILE BENVENISTE? Émile Benveniste (Alep, 27 mai 1902 – Paris, 3 octobre 1976) est l’une des figures les plus marquantes de la discipline linguistique. Élève d’Antoine Meillet (lui-même élève de Ferdinand de Saussure), ce linguiste français locuteur du persan sera, de 1937 à 1969, le titulaire de la chaire de grammaire comparée au Collège de France. Il est notoirement connu pour ses travaux sur l’indo-européen, mais également pour les deux volumes de Problèmes de linguistique générale (1966 et 1974), qui réunissent plusieurs textes clés qui modifieront considérablement la pensée linguistique et sémiotique, tout en posant les bases de la pragmatique. Il s’agit d’articles et de textes de conférences, qui couvrent environ 25 années de recherche, rédigés dans un style qui pour être rigoureux n’en est pas moins abordable. Nous voulions rendre hommage à un personnage extrêmement discret, voire pudique, mais dont l’influence est pourtant déterminante dans le champ actuel des sciences du langage, et dont les réflexions sur le rapport entre le langage et la vie sont tellement précieuses. Dans un monde marqué par la surenchère, Benveniste demeure un modèle aussi intéressant que rare.

CALENDRIER DES RENCONTRES 2016-17 -- SAISON 5 Automne 2015 (Vendredi, 14:00-15:00)

Hiver 2016 (Vendredi, 14:00-15:00)

09 septembre 2016 23 septembre 2016 07 octobre 2016 21 octobre 2016 04 novembre 2016 18 novembre 2016 02 décembre 2016

13 janvier 2017 27 janvier 2017 10 février 2017 24 février 2017 10 mars 2017 24 mars 2017 07 avril 2017

Participation libre et gratuite. Pas besoin de s’inscrire. Juste se présenter au lieu de rencontre.

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Springtime activities of the Cercle Benveniste -Ozouf Sénamin Amedegnato, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures As many of you already know, the inaugural international colloquium of the Cercle Benveniste, entitled “Émile Benveniste, the Crossroads of Disciplines”, took place June 3 and 4, 2016, alongside Congress. The Cercle welcomed colleagues, postdocs and doctoral students from 12 countries, as well as two invited speakers: Dr. Chloé Laplantine (Laboratoire Histoire des Théories Linguistiques, CNRS, France) and Dr. Tomáš Hoskovec (current president of the Prague Linguistic Circle, editor of the anthology Travaux du Cercle linguistique de Prague, Czech Republic).

The following is a summary of the activities that took place after the conference, as Dr. Hoskovec extended his stay in Calgary in order to give a public talk, lead a four-day methodology seminar and meet with colleagues, exploring collaborative opportunities between his institution and ours. During the public talk held Monday, June 06, and entitled “The Prague Linguistic Circle: History and Contemporaneity”, Dr. Hoskovec explained how the work being produced in Prague back in the day was a particular response to Ferdinand de Saussure’s invitation to rethink the study of language. Tomáš offered listeners a programmatic reading of the Course in General Linguistics that was then followed by a fascinating overview of some key contributors through history. He also elaborated upon several of the main features of the Prague Linguistic Circle, which continue to define it to

this day: these include regular Friday meetings; activity on an international scale; and an ongoing willingness to collaborate.

Parallel to his involvement with the PLC, Tomáš Hoskovec is a researcher at the Institute of Slavonic Studies of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He holds two PhDs (mathematics and linguistics); specializes in Lithuanian and Prussian, and has published extensively on Lithuanian and other Baltic languages, Indo-European, structuralism, semiotics, and encompassing philology. The latter was the focus of his seminar “Linguistics as Encompassing Philology” (Tuesday, June 07, through Friday, June 10). According to Tomáš, Linguistics should be interested in both the abstract linguistic system and the study of concrete texts (written and spoken), as one single and unique research object. This belief is at the very foundation of the Prague’s foyer of Structuralism. Whether it be the functional perspective developed by Vilém Mathesius or the immanent approach of literature promoted by Jan Mukařovský , the PLC rejects the traditional opposition between form and content.

Members see both components as equally relevant; with the real challenge being how to manage the plurality. This unifying gesture is the practice of philology, and as such, it would have an ethical aspect. The poem “Zone” by Guillaume Apollinaire was used to illustrate how the functional perspective works concretely. In my view, one of the principle gains from the seminar was the opportunity to discover several major figures from the Prague context, beyond Jakobson et Trubetzkoy, who are more well-known on this side of the Atlantic.

Connecting the dots

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The Prague Circle is currently working on an Atlas of European Structuralism. The project will be unveiled and officially launched this coming October during a colloquium in celebration of its 90th year of existence (Prague, October 24-26, 2016). Knowing the importance of the Circle to the history of Linguistics (and to the evolution of Western Modern Thought), it was a true honor to host Tomáš for three consecutive weeks and to benefit from such a privileged insight regarding an iconic institution. As readers of the LRC newsletter can imagine, it is a difficult task to sum up with brevity all that transpired. Fortunately, Dr. Hoskovec has graciously agreed to revisit several themes he touched on during his stay with us – this time on film! So please stay tuned, and feel free to check with the Cercle Benveniste at its bi-weekly meetings this academic year to learn more.

Magola exhibit at the Language Research Centre -Elizabeth Montes Garcés, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures Thanks to the generosity of Dr. Mary O’Brien, the former Director of the Language Research Centre (LRC), the Canadian Association of Hispanists (CAH) recently had the pleasure of hosting Magola, an exhibit by Adriana Mosquera. The exhibit took place May 28 to June 3 in connection with the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, held at the University of Calgary. Adriana Mosquera, better known by the name “Nani”, is a Colombian-Spanish cartoonist and illustrator. She currently lives in Spain, where she teaches at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. She is the creator of Magola, a daily strip, which appears in El Espectador, one of Colombia’s leading newspapers, and in publications in such other countries as Argentina, Cuba, Ecuador, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Turkey and China. “Nani” Mosquera has had more than a dozen exhibits in major cities around the world. Her many awards include Argentina’s prestigious “Gran Premio Diógenes Taborda.” The Magola Exhibit consisted of sixty cartoons by “Nani” since 1998. The cartoons selected featured all the adventures of her character Magola, a middle-aged married woman who faces not only the challenges of being a hard-working woman with a career but also, a mother and wife. By using fine irony, sarcasm, humor, and intertextuality Mosquera questions the role women play in contemporary western societies and how the most famous western male artists as well as the mass media reinforce those roles. For example, she questions the way women are depicted as the muse, subjected to the gaze of others, or even to violence and rape in works of art by some of the most famous western artists, such as Pablo Picasso (Dora Maar Au Chat), Leonardo Da Vinci (Mona Lisa), and Fernando Botero (Leda y el cisne). Through her character Magola, Mosquera is also highly critical of the ways in which mass media promotes an unrealistic image of the female body. Seduced by the images the mass media purveys, large numbers of women all over the world submit themselves to plastic surgery. In addition, Mosquera deals with many of the problems of ordinary people: our increasing dependence on technological gadgets (computers, cell phones, I Pads), the unpredictable consequences of the use of genetically modified food, the lack of social justice in many developing countries, and close to her heart, the turmoil of the peace process in Colombia, to mention just a few.

The Magola Exhibit was free and open not only to Congress delegates but also to members of the Calgary community at large. More than 200 people saw it, it’s estimated. In conjunction with the exhibit, a panel of experts discussed gender representation in some of the most popular comics published in Latin America and Spain such as René Ríos Boettiger’ (Pepo) Condorito, Joaquín Lavado’s (Quino) Mafalda, Ricardo Siri Liniers’ Macanudo, Adriana (Nani) Mosquera’s Magola, Maitena Burundarena’s Mujeres Alteradas, and Gemma Sesar’s Vida de madre. We also had the opportunity to listen to Adriana (Nani) Mosquera herself talking about her work via Skype.

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Reflections from the Annual Student Poster Symposium -Jennifer MacDonald, PhD Candidate, Werklund School of Education, Curriculum and Learning

In late April I was delighted to participate in the Language Research Centre’s Annual Student Poster Symposium. At the end of the winter semester this provided a great opportunity to work with my doctoral supervisor, Dr. Lisa Panayotidis, and share my emerging ideas and ongoing research in the field of education applying aspects of ecohermeneutics and ecolinguistics.

Our poster was titled Mapping Language: Meanings of “Wilderness”. In this work we explored the notion of wilderness to consider how the language we use might implicate our seeing, experiencing, and understanding of the world around us. Our hermeneutic approach drew on the seminal work of Martin Heidegger and Hans Georg Gadamer to analyze text and image from my own wilderness encounters as an outdoor education teacher. We found that the notion of wilderness has a complex history—inflected through historical, cultural, geographic and political contexts—that influence our understandings of resources and habitats, art and literature, and of political, historical, and economic activities. We believe that mapping out the meanings we construct through language might inform our predetermined understandings of the non-human world and allow us to consider how boundaries between wilderness and urban centres are constructed—important considerations for education around ecology and sustainability. Coming from the Werklund School of Education, it was a pleasure to meet students and professors from other fields and faculties interested in topics around language and culture. Students from Linguistics, German, Communication, Media and Film, and Philosophy offered an interesting mix of topics and a variety of perspectives. The warm and welcoming atmosphere provided space to talk with other the other presenters about their posters and this helped widen my learning and conceptions of more traditional branches of linguistic research and other multidisciplinary applications. In addition, I was fortunate to receive valuable feedback on my work and even some suggested reading that has contributed to my theoretical understandings and will strength my research as I move forward in my program. Overall, the poster symposium—from the initial workshop that supported presenters with resources to create an effective poster to the symposium event itself—was a valuable experience for me. I instantly felt part of a wider community on campus, met others with similar interests, and had the opportunity to discuss my work. I hope to attend this event again next year and will encourage others to do the same, either to present their own poster or to see other interesting research being done at the University of Calgary.

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Understanding the benefits of language learning -Mary O’Brien, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures

The Language Research Centre was approached by the Second Languages and Intercultural Council (SLIC) of the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers (CASLT) to update a 2006 literature review on the benefits of learning a second language. The original review was commissioned by Alberta Education and led by John Archibald and the Sylvie Roy on behalf of the LRC. Over the course of the summer five graduate students from a range of backgrounds (Allison Bajt, JeongEun Lee, Martin Lisanik, Anna Pletnyova, and Stephanie Reyes) and I worked to uncover cutting-edge research in the following areas:

cognitive benefits of language learning academic benefits of language learning personal benefits of language learning societal benefits of language learning intercultural competencies economic benefits of language learning students with special needs English-language learners

The review is written in lay terms, and its target audience is primarily members of the public at large. In general, the results from this literature review support those from 2006. For example, children learning a second language often show enhanced metalinguistic knowledge (i.e., the ability to talk about language). In addition, although they are often discouraged from doing so, English-language learners and students with special needs are able to learn a second language. The focus on intercultural competencies is new in this review. One important finding from research in the area is that language learners tend to demonstrate more positive attitudes to other cultures. The final review will be available on the LRC website this fall.

Studying Intensive French at the Calgary Board of Education -Katherine Mueller, LRC Research Associate and Instructor, Werklund School of Education Since 2012, I have been involved (along with Mary O’Brien of the LRC) in an exciting research partnership between the LRC and the Calgary Board of Education to investigate the CBE’s implementation of the Intensive French approach to teaching French as a Second Language. Intensive French is based upon Paradis’ Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism (2004) and was developed into a school-ready approach for the teaching of French as a Second Language by New Brunswick-based researchers Joan Netten and Claude Germain. Briefly, Intensive French was created in response to concerns that FSL instruction was not producing fluency. According to Netten and Germain (2012), “it is widely known that students participating in the core French program [FSL] do not attain fluency in French by the end of secondary school” (p.87). In light of this unfortunate reality, they ask, “is it possible for core French students to develop communication skills in French in a classroom situation?” (p.87). It was with a view to exploring this question that the Intensive French approach was launched. Could a targeted approach develop the functional language base of Grade 5 students to prepare (and motivate) them for further French study?

Together with the community

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The approach is implemented between September and the end of January of the Grade 5 year, with 70% of the school day devoted exclusively to French language instruction. During that period, students continue to study math, physical education and an option (computers, art or music) in English. From February till June, the students study a “compacted curriculum”, which requires a strong commitment from the school board and from the school administration: all other subjects are completed in English during the second semester. Teachers of Intensive French undergo extensive training in the Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA), and receive sustained and intensive support from consultants. Teachers follow the provincially-mandated curriculum for Grade 5 FSL, implementing the curriculum according to several crucial principles:

1. The teacher speaks only in French.

2. The teacher speaks only in complete sentences.

3. The students are required to respond in complete sentences. The theory behind these two requirements (#2 and #3) is that

students will be able to build an internal grammar of the language by being exposed to large amounts of input structured in

naturally formed complete sentences (as opposed to isolated words, for example).

4. Teachers introduce new vocabulary and language by modelling it.

5. Students practice the newly introduced language by progressing through a series of 5 steps that involve responding to a

structured teacher question following the teacher’s model for response, by asking that question of a peer, by reporting on a

peer’s response, and by questioning other peers.

6. Teachers gradually build complexity of language by building upon the original model and by introducing new vocabulary.

7. The language modelled by teachers is authentic and useful to students’ lives.

8. Language learning is viewed as a circular process (“boucler la boucle”, “buckle the buckle”). Oral proficiency precedes

reading (you cannot read what you cannot say), which precedes writing (you cannot write what you cannot read); writing is

followed by oral production – reading aloud and talking about what one has written - in order to complete the circle (or

boucler la boucle). This is also called the “literacy loop”.

Ultimately, at the end of the Intensive French period, students should be able to participate in an unrehearsed 10-15 minutes oral interview with someone unfamiliar to them. During the 10-15 minutes discussion, the interviewer would ask the student natural questions about the themes with which the student is familiar. The interview would proceed as a normal conversation, with questions and answers as they occur in a normal conversation, and natural interaction. The interview is typically graded according to the New Brunswick Scale of Oral Proficiency, with 10 being the lowest grade possible (representing an inability to communicate in French) and 18 being the highest grade usually attainable (representing an ability to communicate comfortably and naturally about a wide variety of topics). Typically, students in the Intensive French program (in which French is taught for 70% of the school day over a period of 5 months) achieve an average grade of 14 on this scale. The CBE offers the Intensive French approach at three Calgary schools. As part of the LRC/CBE research initiative, I have followed Intensive French teachers over the past four years, observing their implementation of the strategies, and collecting both qualitative and quantitative data (in the form of the NB oral scale interview scores). The number of students scoring 14 or higher has increased from below 50% in the first year of the study to 80% during the 2015-2016 school year. Based on interviews with students in English, we determined that student confidence and motivation were high as a result of their participation in the approach. We attribute this success to increased and sustained teacher training, sharing of strategies amongst IF teachers and strong support for teachers. Teachers have left and joined the program over the course of the study, but all have been well-trained and followed closely, and this seems to be a crucial factor in student success. During the 2013-2014 school year, we began observing how teachers of regular FSL classes (i.e. not Intensive French) and of Late French Immersion, who had been trained in the NLA, were implementing the strategies in their contexts. Our findings suggest that implementing the strategies associated with the NLA can be highly successful in regular FSL classes (that is, classes of about 35 minutes about three times a week). While the intensity is not possible in that context, the consistent and exclusive use of French, in tandem with a commitment to the modelling strategies and the use of the literacy loop has produced impressive results in student use of complete, accurate and authentic sentences. In the Late French Immersion context, teachers trained in the NLA focused on using and requiring the use of complete sentences (which is not typically a requirement of

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French Immersion), as well as the modelling of targeted structures. Again, results were positive, with teachers reporting that students made use of the targeted language.

The study continues in the 2016-2017 school year, with a focus on comparing the success in Grade 7 Late Immersion of a Grade 6 cohort who learned French with the Intensive French approach and a Grade 6 cohort who followed typical FSL instruction (without the NLA strategies). As well, we will focus on how FSL teachers apply the strategies in a non-Intensive French context. We anticipate that the lessons learned from this longitudinal study will continue to benefit students of French, both in FSL programs and in French Immersion. We continue to explore the benefits of the suggested strategies in the various contexts, and we seek to train as many CBE French teachers as possible in the potential of these strategies. As word of the success of this approach has spread, I have had the opportunity to work with other area school boards to explore professional development opportunities for their teachers.

References:

Netten, J. & Germain C. (2012). A new paradigm for the learning of a second or foreign language: the neurolinguistic approach. Neuroeducation, 11, 1, 85-114. Paradis. M. (2004). A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

CEFR Certificates: A Comparative Study -Odile Rollin, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures

I was trained as a DELF Assessor in Calgary in 2010 and as a DELF Examiner Trainer in Winnipeg in 2012. My certifications allowed the University of Calgary to be awarded the status of an official “DELF Examination Centre” by the French Embassy in Ottawa in 2012. Since then, I have run and participated in several examination sessions, both nationally and internationally. More than 200 candidates have taken the examination at the University of Calgary since 2010 (success rate around 90%), and I have trained more than 100 assessors nationally and internationally. The Aula Cervantes at the University of Calgary is the only center operating in Canada. It provides to students and teachers of Spanish linguistic materials and resources, helps them with their cultural and academic projects, professional development activities, DELE tests of Spanish, etc. It works closely with the 17 DELE examination centers around the country and public and private schools in Canada. The following months will see the opening of five more DELE centers in Alberta and Ontario. More than 600 candidates with take the DELE tests in 2016, most of them coming from International Spanish Academies and private schools. At the University of Calgary DELF Centre, most candidates come from the Faculty of Arts and Education. They often study or speak more than one international language and want to enhance their resumes with international credentials. They often come to me with questions regarding international language diplomas. Furthermore, several DELF assessors in training are already DELE examiners and question such aspects of the DELF as its examination structure, content and grading. Therefore, to provide our University of Calgary candidates and DELF assessors with accurate information, I felt the necessity to compare the international examinations in French, Italian, Spanish and German. This is the first comparative study of this kind to my knowledge. Since all examinations are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), I had assumed they were structured and graded the same way. However, this is not the case. Each country decides on assessor’s training requirements, examination structure, passing grades, registration fees and administration regulations.

To collect data on these parameters, I worked with:

- Dr. Mary O’Brien, Associate Professor of German, Director of the Language Research Centre and Goethe-Zertifikat Assessor

- Ms. Sarah Taekema, Co-ordinator for the Goethe-Zertifikat tests - Ms. Melania Pascual, Aula Cervantes Director and DELE specialist for Canada - Professor Emilia Spoldi, Italian Instructor and CILS assessor trained in Italy

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With the help of my dedicated colleagues, I gathered very informative data presented below.

Similarities: - All examinations are based on the six levels of CEFR (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2), A1 = basic user and C2 = proficient user. - All examinations are competency based (i.e.: introducing yourself, analysing a text, comparing information…). - All examinations assess listening, reading, speaking, writing and interaction. - All examinations are independent; each candidate selects the examination they want to take. - All examinations are designed by the country awarding the diplomas. - Most A and B level examinations offer a “Junior” version for candidates under the age of 18. - All diplomas are recognized around the world. - All diplomas are valid for life. - B2 is the minimum level required to enrol in a European university in the target language. - All examinations are assessed independently by two examiners who discuss their assessment and mutually agree on a

score. - Registration fees are relatively similar (A Level= $100.00, C level= $200.00). - Examination centre coordinators agree on the usefulness of these standardized examinations, but also on the overwhelming

task of running examination sessions.

Differences: - Passing grades: for most exams, candidates need 50% overall to pass. For the Spanish examination, candidates need 60%

in each of the four sections. - Marking regulations: Italian is entirely marked in Italy (oral productions are recorded and then sent to Italy), Spanish oral

examinations are assessed in Calgary, but written examinations are marked in Spain, whereas German and French examinations are entirely graded in Calgary. This has a huge impact on examination session organization, results shipping, diploma issuance and budget.

- Grading rubrics: there are 12 marking grids for each language (2 per level). A separate study would be necessary to compare them as they are structured very differently.

- Diplomas are awarded by different institutions in the country producing the examinations: DELF is awarded by Ministry of Education in France, DELE by Instituto Cervantes on behalf of the Department of Education, Culture and Sports in Spain, Goethe-Zertifikat by Goethe Institute in Germany and CILS by the University of Siena, Italy.

- Assessors’ training: in Italian, initial training is done in Italy and certification is valid for life. In Spanish, there is face-to-face training in Calgary and online training for the 17 DELE examination centers in Canada, teachers and consultants, organized by the Instituto Cervantes in Albuquerque, Chicago, New York, Seattle and Calgary. In French, initial training is provided face-to-face in Calgary and recertification takes place every 5 years. In German, training takes place in various places and calibration occurs on an annual basis. In recent years, the Goethe Institute has implemented an online training system, which enables assessors all over the world to receive training. In addition, there are annual online calibration sessions to ensure that assessors continue to mark examinations consistently from one year to the next.

- Number of examinations available (=Déclinaisons): DELF offers 20 déclinaisons, including examinations for young children (DELF Prim) or for professional purposes (DELF Pro), CILS offers CILS Uno, Due, Tre and Quattro (levels B1 to C2), DELE offers an A2/B1 examination in addition to all other examinations.

- Examination sessions schedule: DELF schedule is established by the French Embassy in Ottawa on a yearly basis, German and Italian examination schedules are determined by each centre, DELE offers four sessions per year on specific dates.

Despite these administrative differences, DELE, DELF, CILS and Goethe-Zertifikat are assets for our students whose careers will require professional mobility and international competencies. Furthermore, offering these diplomas at the University of Calgary completely aligns with the Eyes High Vision and International Strategy, which promotes internationalization. In addition, Education students willing to teach French are now required to hold a minimum of DELF B2 prior to applying to a position. Finally, thanks to Dr. Mary O’Brien who worked closely with the University of Calgary Registrar’s Office, students who successfully complete a CEFR exam can opt to have the result appear on their co-curricular record. Further comparative study would be necessary to promote these international diplomas more widely on campus, share administrative resources and perhaps include CEFR teaching and assessment techniques in our language courses.

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Thanks to my dear colleagues Mary O’Brien, Emilia Spoldi, Melania Pascual and Sarah Taekema who devoted time and effort to help me with this project.

DALF C2 Oral Examinations on Film http://www.ucalgary.ca/delf/resources/dalf-c2 -Odile Rollin, School of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures and Cultures Summary: This is the first project of this kind: I produced three films of DALF C2 mock oral examinations with the help of three UofC students: Émilie Lefèbvre, Manessa Bhikoo and Charlotte Jacobson. The films are posted on the University of Calgary DELF webpage for international public use (link above). The official launch of these films took place at the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Ottawa on January 28, 2016.

Project: Since 2012, the University of Calgary DELF Examination Centre has been the largest C2 centre in Canada (between 15 to 20 candidates per year). Success rate is around 90% and the cost of examination is $200.00. To promote the DALF C2 examination, I designed a PowerPoint Presentation used in all advanced French courses as well as in French Education classes. I personally meet all interested candidates to assess their French Language competencies as well as their analytical skills. I also organize a seven-hour preparation workshop in which candidates take a mock examination. These individual meetings, combined with the preparation workshop allow students to be placed accurately and maximize success. However, a major element was missing to motivate candidates to take the examination or to prepare independently: models of oral examinations on the web. For this reason, I decided to submit a proposal to CIEP (Centre international d’études pédagogiques, Head office of DELF examination centres in Paris, France) to run, grade, film and post these models on our webpage. CIEP enthusiastically approved the project, which took ten months to realize. No research funding was allocated to this project. Students received a small honorarium from the French Centre. The whole project involved:

- Submitting a proposal to CIEP and discussing protocol. - Selecting three students for the project, based on specific criteria (various language abilities, backgrounds, motivation etc.). - Meeting individually with the students on a regular basis to prepare them for the mock examination (the three of them had

previously successfully taken DALF C2 examination at the University of Calgary). - Downloading and uploading many documents (sound files, topics, films, grading rubrics etc.). - Working with Com-media technicians to organize shooting and editing of the films. - Working with Faculty of Arts technicians to convert / transfer documents, post films and sound files on the University of

Calgary DELF webpage. - Marking each examination individually, including exhaustive comments and posting final “Harmonized” marks provided by

CIEP.

I would like to extend my thanks to the three students Charlotte, Manessa and Émilie who volunteered their time to help me with this project. Their involvement entailed:

- meeting with me on several occasions to discuss mock examination procedures, schedule, expectations, marking rubrics

and waivers. - listening to a thirty-minute sound file provided by CIEP (radio interview of several participants, on a current issue in the

Francophone world), taking notes to summarize it and selecting a topic for a role play. - sixty-minute independent preparation for the mock examination. - thirty-minute mock examination by two examiners in front of two cameras. - meeting with me to discuss their performances and their grades.

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This project was highly commended by CIEP both for its content and the technical aspects of the recording: “Un GRAND, GRAND merci pour ces précieuses vidéos et cette belle collaboration” Madame Lucile Chapiro, CIEP Paris, France. These films will be widely used internationally for training purposes (both by candidates and assessors). Thanks to all stakeholders who made this lengthy project possible:

1. Ms. Lucile Chapiro, CIEP, Paris who gratefully approved, monitored and supported the project. 2. Charlotte, Manessa and Émilie (University of Calgary students) who dedicated time and effort to this project. 3. Dr. Eileen Lohka, Director of the University of Calgary French Centre who funded this project and enthusiastically supported

it. 4. Ms. Fanny Macé, DELF Assessor, who participated enthusiastically in the making of the three films and assessed the three

examinations. 5. Mr. Xavier Moquet and Mr. Samuel Coeytaux, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in Ottawa, who launched the

page on January 28, 2016. 6. University of Calgary Faculty of Arts and Com-media technicians who helped me a great deal with all the technical aspects

of the project.

From left to right: Fanny Macé, Charlotte Jacobson,

Odile Rollin

From left to right: Fanny Macé, Manessa

Bhikoo, Odile Rollin From left to right: Fanny Macé, Émilie Lefèbvre, Odile Rollin