A Memorial Volume in Honour of Sauli Takala
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Ari Huhta, Gudrun Erickson, Neus Figueras (eds.) Developments in Language Education: A Memorial Volume in Honour of Sauli Takala EALTA – European Association for Language Testing and Assessment University of Jyväskylä, Centre for Applied Language Studies Developments in Language Education: A Memorial Volume in Honour of Sauli Takala Developments in Language Education: A Memorial Volume in Honour of Sauli Takala Edited by Ari Huhta, Gudrun Erickson, Neus Figueras University of Jyväskylä/Centre for Applied Language Studies EALTA - European Association for Language Testing and Assessment Jyväskylä & EALTA, 2019 © authors, photographers, University of Jyväskylä/Centre for Applied Language Studies and EALTA ˗ European Association for Language Testing and Assessment Cover photograph (Köklot Island, Kvarken Strait) and the photograph of Sauli Takala by Paula Bertell Cover and layout Sinikka Lampinen ISBN 978-951-39-7748-1 (PDF) ISBN 978-951-39-7747-4 (pbk) University Printing House, Jyväskylä, Finland 2019 Table of contents Ari Huhta, Gudrun Erickson and Neus Figueras Introduction ............................................................................................................... 7 Veronica Benigno and John de Jong Linking vocabulary to the CEFR and the Global Scale of English: A psychometric model ............................................................................................... 8 Sarah Breslin, Susanna Slivensky and Michael Armstrong Intellectual, insightful, inspiring – the ECML remembers Sauli Takala .................... 30 Cecilie Hamnes Carlsen, Bart Deygers, Beate Zeidler and Dina Vîlcu CEFR-based language requirements in the European labour market ......................... 33 Gudrun Erickson Holistic peer analyses of National Tests in relation to the CEFR .............................. 49 Elizabeth Guerin Sauli Takala and his Archive – 'the love he bore to learning' .................................... 67 Claudia Harsch What it means to be at a CEFR level – Or why my Mojito is not your Mojito – on the significance of sharing Mojito recipes ........................................................... 76 Angela Hasselgreen and Eli Moe Digitally testing the language of young learners: A learning curve ........................... 94 Raili Hildén, Marita Härmälä, Juhani Rautopuro and Mari Huhtanen Finnish 9th graders’ language skills: Effects of learning environment and teaching on levels attained compared with other European countries ..................... 113 Ari Huhta Understanding self-assessment – what factors might underlie learners’ views of their foreign language skills? ............................................................................. 131 Taina Juurakko-Paavola Relating Finnish Matriculation Examination grades to the CEFR .......................... 147 Erkki Kangasniemi Nuoresta opiskelijasta alansa asiantuntijaksi (From a young student to an expert of his field) ............................................................................................................ 152 Carola Karlsson-Fält Kielikylpykahvila ruotsinopiskelijoiden informaalina oppimisympäristönä (Language immersion café as an informal learning environment for students in the Swedish language) ....................................................................................... 158 Olga Lankina Dr. Sauli Takala, a coach who made a difference ................................................... 174 Christer Laurén Land skall med lag byggas (‘Land shall be built on law’) ...................................... 176 Peter Lenz, Katharina Karges and Malgorzata Barras Investigating test method effects in French L2 reading items for young learners .... 182 Constant Leung and Jo Lewkowicz What counts as language proficiency for UK citizenship: The B1 benchmark? ...... 203 David Little Plurilingual and intercultural education: Some critical reflections .......................... 226 Karita Mård-Miettinen and Siv Björklund ”In one sentence there can easily be three different languages”. A glimpse into the use of languages among immersion students ............................ 239 Barry O’Sullivan Redefining specific purpose tests ........................................................................... 250 Johanna Panthier and Joe Sheils An appreciation of Sauli Takala’s contribution to Council of Europe language projects .................................................................................................................. 268 Aud Marit Simensen A note on changing attitudes to linguistic errors in learner language in English teaching in Norway ................................................................................................ 271 Norman Verhelst, Neus Figueras, Elena Prokhorova, Sauli Takala and Tatiana Timofeeva Standard setting for writing and speaking: The Saint Petersburg experience .......... 278 Taina Wewer “Maailman paras kirja!”: Portfolio englannin kielen osaamisen kasvun dokumentoijana peruskoulun luokilla 1-3 kaksikielisessä opetuksessa (”The best book in the world!” Portfolio as a means to document growth of the English language skills in bilingual education in grades 1-3 of the comprehensive school) ........................................................................................... 302 Introduction This Volume implements the decision taken at EALTA’s Annual General Meeting held in Sèvres, France, on 2nd June 2017, to honour the memory of Professor Sauli Takala, a founding member of the Association, its President from 2007 to 2010, who tragically left us on 15th February 2017. Sauli was emeritus professor at the University of Jyväskylä, Doctor of Philosophy honoris causa and Doctor of Education honoris causa. He was committed to the values of the Council of Europe and was heavily involved in the Council’s developments in language education over decades. Although retired from his professorship in applied linguistics in 2002, this may have gone unnoticed given his tireless dedication to the field of applied linguistics and specifically language testing and assessment. During his extremely busy retirement years, he took part in many projects and academic evaluations such as being the public opponent for numerous licentiate and doctoral theses. He was the recipient of a number of awards and honorary doctorates. Sauli was a great friend, mentor and colleague, and those of us who had the pleasure of working with him, enjoyed his scholarship, his gentle attitude and his genuine love for the fields of language teaching and assessment. He made a tremendous contribution to the assessment community in his unique considerate way, drawing on his wealth of knowledge and experience. He was always active for language assessment professionals world-wide, always willing to share his wisdom and his vast collection of books, materials and articles (see further https://kiesplang.fi). Sauli had an open mind, a warm heart and a winning personality. This memorial volume comprises an impressive 23 texts, with considerable variation thematically and in structure, as well as regarding length and genre. All, implicitly or explicitly, reflect Sauli Takala’s wide and diverse areas of expertise and interest and also his many co-operations and networks. Abstracts in English are provided for texts that are written in Finnish or Swedish. The contributions are placed in alphabetical order according to the surname of the author(s). A digital copy of this volume is available in the Resources section of the EALTA webpage (http://www.ealta.eu.org/resources.htm). We as editors, and also on behalf of EALTA, are extremely grateful to the authors of the different contributions and chapters, to our co-editors Kathryn Brennan and Elizabeth Guerin, and to all those professionals at the University of Jyväskylä who made this Volume possible with their work and expertise. 15 April, 2019 Ari Huhta, Jyväskylä Gudrun Erickson, Gothenburg Neus Figueras, Barcelona 8 Linking vocabulary to the CEFR and the Global Scale of English: A psychometric model Veronica Benigno Pearson, Germany John de Jong Language Testing Services, The Netherlands 1. Introduction A review of the studies on vocabulary acquisition, teaching and assessment (Bogaards and Laufer, 2004; Granger, 2017; Meara, 2009; Milton, 2009; Read, 2000; Schmitt and McCarthy, 1997) shows that although this field of investigation has evolved quite rapidly over the last few decades, there is still little agreement on how many and which words are needed to communicate efficiently at increasing proficiency levels. Attempts to relate vocabulary knowledge to proficiency levels have focused on quantitative aspects and frequency profiling methods have investigated learners’ knowledge of single words, for example, by means of vocabulary size tests, e.g. the Vocabulary Levels Test (Nation, 1990; Schmitt, Schmitt, and Clapham, 2001). In reality, vocabulary knowledge is known to be a multidimensional construct (Daller et al., 2007; Meara, 2009; Read, 2004) which should, therefore, not simply be regarded as a quantitative process (in terms of expansion of one’s vocabulary size) but also be considered from a qualitative point of view (in terms of vocabulary depth, e.g. knowledge of different word meanings, collocations, pragmatic rules). At present there is no clear guidance on vocabulary requirements at different proficiency levels. On the contrary, several recent studies show that the selection of vocabulary included in textbooks lacks methodological foundation. Norberg and Nordlund (2018)