Situating Strategy Use: The interplay of language learning strategies and individual learning characteristics | Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt | 16-17 October 2015 CROSS-LANGUAGE MEDIATION STRATEGY USE ACROSS PROFICIENCY LEVELS Dr Maria Stathopoulou Lecturer | National Technical University of Athens RCeL Research Fellow | University of Athens Tutor | Hellenic Open University Expert Member of the working group concerning the CEFR | Council of Europe
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Situating Strategy Use: The interplay of language learning strategies and individual learning characteristics | Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt | 16-17 October 2015
CROSS-LANGUAGE MEDIATIONSTRATEGY USE ACROSSPROFICIENCY LEVELS
Dr Maria StathopoulouLecturer | National Technical University of Athens
RCeL Research Fellow | University of AthensTutor | Hellenic Open University
Expert Member of the working group concerning the CEFR | Council of Europe
o selective extraction of information from a ST in one language and relaying it in another language for a given communicative purpose
o interpretation of meanings articulated in STs & making of new meanings in the TL expressed appropriately for the context of situation (Dendrinos, 2006)
o is a form of translanguaging (Stathopoulou, 2013, 2015)Involves interplay of languages: moving back and forth among different languages – no clear cut boundaries between languages
What does mediation involve?
Cross-language mediation in the European context
“In both the receptive and productive modes, the written and/or oral activities of mediation make communication possible between persons who are unable, for whatever reason to communicate with each other directly.”
“Mediation language activities, (re)processing an existing text, occupy an important place in the normal linguistic functioning of our societies.”
Using information from the text below, write an email (80 words) to your friend Dylan who is in Greece informing him about the Cultural Park of Athens and telling him what he can do there if he visits it.
Mediation in the Greek national foreign language exams (KPG) : A B1 level example
..learners’ - ability to move back and forth between languages - ability to simultaneously draw on different linguistic and cultural
resources from a variety of contexts.
Mediation tasks assess…
Research on mediation
Research aim to explore the mechanisms of cross-language mediation (in a
testing context) to investigate what strategies lead to successful mediation
performance
This paper: examines the extent to which proficiency level affects mediation
strategy use
Research organisation
STAG
E 1
Task analysis(KPG Task Database)
STAG
E 2
Textual analysis(Corpus of 53.000 words)
Typology of written mediation tasks
Inventory of written mediation strategies (IWMS)
THE CORPUSB1 B2 C1 No of
wordsPhase 1
7.950 7.950
Phase 2
9.000 18.000 18.000 45.000
TOTAL NUMBER 9.000 25.950 18.000
52.950
Towards model development
• Analysis of a limited corpus
(Exploratory) Phase 1
Preliminary category set
• Analysis of a large corpus
Phase 2
Final category set
The Inventory of Written Mediation Strategies (IWMS) TYPE A MEDIATION STRATEGIES
1. Creative blending between extracted and extra-textual information
1a text level (NOT required by the task)
1b text level (required by the task)
1c sentence level (NOT required by the task)
1d sentence level (required by the task)
2. Combining information
2a text level
2b sentence level
3. Summarising
3a Summarising part of the text
3a1 sentence level: sentence extracted transferring the gist
3a2 text level: main ideas
3a3 text level: main ideas + extracted concluding-general statement
3a4 text level: main ideas + inserted concluding-general statement
7b Syntax-level paraphrasing (transforming bullets into continuous text)
7c Phrase-level paraphrasing
7d Word-level paraphrasing
Quantitative & qualitative analysis• To what extent do task parameters and
requirements affect written mediation-strategy use?
• Which strategies (and to what extent) differentiate successful from less successful mediation scripts?
• Which strategies (and to what extent) differentiate scripts of different proficiency levels?
To what extent does the linguistic realisation of mediation strategies in low level mediation scripts differ from the linguistic realisation of the strategies traced in high level scripts?
Complementing the results derived from the statistical analysis with qualitative findings to investigate the potential for linguistic features related to specific mediation strategies to discriminate between texts written by low- and high-proficiency writers
The higher the proficiency level, the more scripts that include strategies of both types
Strategies
Proficiency level
B1 B2 C1
Count % of B1 scripts Count % of B2
scripts Count % of C1 scripts
Type A 6 3,3 19 10,6 7 3,9
Type B 65 36,1 26 14,4 13 7,2
Type A & B 108 60,0 126 70,0 159 88,3
none 1 ,6 9 5,0 1 ,6
The higher the level, the less scripts including exclusively Type B strategies
The higher the level, the more scripts including the strategies of creative blending, combining and summarising
0
20
40
60
80
100
25
6
39
9 92
96
29
14
57
11 12
1
84
66
18
62
413
5
96
Mediation strategies - Proficiency level
B1B2C1
% o
f s
cri
pts
The higher the level, the greater the variety of strategies used simultaneously
B1 B2 C10
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
1
5
1
36
20
9
45 46
37
15
22
36
46
16
0 12
0 1 0
Variety of mediation strategies - Proficiency level
focused on the frequently detected mediation strategies, (creative blending between extracted and extra-textual information, combining of extracted messages and paraphrasing):
a) Analysis 1: focused on sentence semantics (logico-semantic relations holding between clauses through which mediation strategies are realized )
b) Analysis 2: focused on sentence grammar (lexico-grammatical patterns which differentiate syntax, phrase and word-level paraphrasing
B1 C1COMBINING
All clauses in the instances of combining are linked by extensionEX: First of all listen to music every morning when you make up! Never forget that! You can also listen your favourite songs, while going to school or when you are in the bus.
Elaboration (restatement, exemplification, clarification): main relationEX: Another advice I would give is boycotting products and services which are not friendly for the environment. We must develop an environmental conscience. Not only must we recycle and use recyclable commodities, but a wider action is also needed. Changing our way of life would be effective.
CREATIVE BLENDING
Enhancement (reference to time, place, manner, cause or condition) commonly occursEX: You can also take exersise a couple of hours before you go to sleep. If you do this, you can take the stress away and sleep easily, too.
Extension is much more used as a linkage in the instances of creative blendingEX: To be more specific, I knew that I had to face a dense of difficulties. You know…they are saying that if you quit smoking, you will get fatter and you will always be in bad mood or feel depressed. But I ignore them. I asked my family to support me.
Types of relations between low & high proficiency texts: examples
4. Other re-structuring techniquesrank change (sentence>clause> phrase) negative construction to statement (& vice versa)omission of certain lexical elements
WORD-LEVEL PARAPHRASING1. rank change (word>phrase), same meaning 3. Formal paraphrases 2. Semantic paraphrases word class
providing an equivalent word, same meaning number changeproviding an equivalent word, similar meaning tense changeproviding an equivalent word, slightly different meaning
providing a superordinate (generalisation) person change providing a subordinate (particularisation)
Quantitative and… qualitative analysis
Quantitative analysis: brought to the surface indications of differentiated strategy-use across tasks of different proficiency levels
Qualitative analysis: showed to what extent the linguistic means, through which mediation strategies are realized, differs as the level increases.
Contribution & usefulness of the study The study constitutes a starting point for the
development of descriptors for reliable assessment of mediation competence
mediation strategies needed for learners of different levels when being involved in different mediation tasks the language to be used by learners at each proficiency level (Stathopoulou, 2013a, 2013b)
The book: o raises readers’ awareness regarding the
‘mingling-of languages idea’ in teaching and testing
o stresses the urgent need for foreign language policies to consider cross-language mediation as a fundamental ability that language learners need to develop,
o advocates the implementation of programmes aiming at the development of translanguaging and mediation strategies