English Profile in Practice in this web service www.cambridge.org
Also in this series: Criterial Features in L2 English John A Hawkins and Luna Filipović Language Functions Revisited Anthony Green Immigrant Pupils Learn English Bronagh Ćatibušić and David Little The CEFR in Practice Brian North in this web service www.cambridge.org
English Profile in Practice Edited by Julia Harrison and Fiona Barker Cambridge English Language Assessment in this web service www.cambridge.org
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom is part of the University of Cambridge. It furthers the University s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence. www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107493988 2015 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of. First published 2015 Printed in A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data English Profile in practice / edited by Julia Harrison, Fiona Barker. pages cm -- (English Profile Studies, 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-49398-8 (paperback) 1. English language--study and teaching (Higher)--Foreign speakers. 2. Second language acquisition--study and teaching. 3. English language--grammar--study and teaching (Higher) I. Harrison, Julia, editor. II. Barker, Fiona, editor. PE1128.A2E546 2015 428.0071--dc23 has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Information regarding prices, travel timetables, and other factual information given in this work is correct at the time of first printing but does not guarantee the accuracy of such information thereafter. 2014043084 in this web service www.cambridge.org
Contents Acknowledgements Series Editors note List of abbreviations vi viii x 1 What is English Profile? 1 Julia Harrison 2 The English Vocabulary Profile 9 Annette Capel 3 The English Grammar Profile 28 Julia Harrison 4 English Profile and functions 49 Julia Harrison 5 Portraits of each CEFR level 69 Fiona Barker 6 Applications of English Profile 93 Ben Knight 7 Directions in English Profile research 106 Angeliki Salamoura, Jeannette Littlemore, Akira Murakami and Sylvia Jaworska 8 Getting involved in English Profile 120 Julia Harrison References 126 Author index 130 Subject index 132 v in this web service www.cambridge.org
Acknowledgements As editors and contributors to this English Profile Studies volume, we would like to thank everyone who has helped to create this book which we hope will be beneficial to education practitioners around the world. We would firstly like to express our sincere thanks to colleagues from Cambridge English Language Assessment and Cambridge University Press who have helped us to plan this volume and who have written sections and reviewed the entire manuscript. We had supportive Series Editors in Mike Milanovic and Nick Saville (both at Cambridge English Language Assessment) and are very grateful for the contributions and insightful comments from Ben Knight and Angeliki Salamoura throughout the process. For his coordination of this project and hands-on approach to this book s production we would like to thank John Savage, Publications Assistant at Cambridge English Language Assessment. Thanks are also due to our reviewers, Roger Hawkey (University of Bedfordshire) and Alex Tilbury (consultant) whose insightful comments and suggestions improved this volume immeasurably. We would also like to thank English Profile Network members who have directly contributed to this book, starting with Annette Capel (consultant) who led the English Vocabulary Profile research team and acted as a sounding board throughout this process. For their work on the English Grammar Profile that fed into the relevant chapter, we would like to thank Anne O Keeffe (Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick) and Geraldine Mark (freelance researcher) and also Leslie Hendra (freelance) who produced the grammar gems. Our gratitude also goes to the section authors in Chapter 7, namely Jeannette Littlemore (University of Birmingham), Akira Murakami (University of Birmingham), Sylvia Jaworska (University of Reading) and to their co-researchers listed below. Thanks are also due to Ron Carter and Mike McCarthy (University of Nottingham) for their work on the English Grammar Profile, and to Carol- June Cassidy, Kate Woodford and Elizabeth Walter for their work on the English Vocabulary Profile. The final group to be thanked carried out research projects that have been described in Chapter 7 of this volume; in alphabetical order these are Dora Alexopoulou (University of Cambridge), Tina Krennmayr (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), James Turner (University of Birmingham), Sarah Turner (University of Birmingham) and Helen Yannakoudakis (University of Cambridge). vi in this web service www.cambridge.org
Acknowledgements We have sought permission for the use of Council of Europe materials in Chapter 5 and would like to thank the Council for its recognition and support of the English Profile Programme since it was launched in 2006 at IATEFL Harrogate. We would like to express our thanks to the English Profile team in Cambridge and beyond for supporting us throughout this journey and hope that you enjoy dipping into this book. vii in this web service www.cambridge.org
Series Editors note This is the fifth volume in the English Profile (EP) Studies series and complements the earlier four volumes. It draws on the wide range of academic research that has already been published, especially the topics covered in Volumes 1 and 2 (Green 2012, Hawkins and Filipović 2012), but it does so in an easily accessible style that will appeal to a broad audience. The authorship of the papers in this volume has mainly been shared by long-standing members of the EP coordination team (based in Cambridge since 2005), including the two editors, Julia Harrison and Fiona Barker. In addition to the other volumes in the EP series, these papers make reference to the extensive catalogue of resources which are freely available from the EP website. The dissemination of the EP findings to the widest possible audience is in keeping with a stated aim of the EP Programme (EPP) when the project was first launched, namely to develop user-friendly Reference Level Descriptions (RLDs) for English to accompany the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), as well as a range of communication tools to support their uses in practice. This is what English Profile in Practice sets out to do. The editors have brought together a series of short papers to help practitioners make use of the EP in their own work. The target readership includes all those who are using the CEFR to support their activities in the learning, teaching or assessment of English. So whether you are involved in syllabus design, writing pedagogic materials, administering tests or teaching in a classroom, this volume offers a wealth of useful background information and practical guidance. Harrison introduces the volume by asking the question: What is English Profile? She briefly summarises the history of the project and why it is relevant to teachers, and then highlights some of its most innovative features. In particular, she focuses on the use of learner data and the value of corpus-based studies, which remain at the heart of the EP approach and which have provided some unique insights into our understanding of the CEFR for English. The English Vocabulary Profile and the English Grammar Profile, described in Chapters 2 and 3 respectively, illustrate how these insights have been turned into searchable tools using a contemporary, web-based interface. The piloting of these tools has helped to ensure their practicality and usefulness for the target audience. Throughout the volume, the focus is on awareness-raising and clear explanations of the complex issues which underpin the EP research agenda, and, by using concrete examples, the readership is invited to engage viii in this web service www.cambridge.org
Series Editors note with the topics, to reflect on the findings and, where appropriate, to adapt the work to their own contexts. Of course much still remains to be done and this is part of the message. Access to larger amounts of learner data, made possible through collaboration in the EP Network for example, will mean that the insights gained so far can be further enhanced and the quality of the tools improved as a result. In her concluding chapter, Harrison draws attention to that fact that the EPP is still continuing with an ever-widening network of collaborators, and she invites the reader to get involved. In this way the EPP will find better ways to use learner data more effectively and this will shed more light on how English is learned in practice. Nick Saville and Mike Milanovic December 2014 References Green, A (2012) Language Functions Revisited: Theoretical and Empirical Bases Across the Ability Range, English Profile Studies volume 2, Cambridge: UCLES/. Hawkins, J A and Filipović, L (2012) Criterial Features in L2 English: Specifying the Reference Levels of the Common European Framework, English Profile Studies volume 1, Cambridge: UCLES/. ix in this web service www.cambridge.org
List of abbreviations CAE CALD CEC CEFR CEPC CIEP CLC CPE CUP EGP ELT EPP EVP FCE IELTS KET MLU PET RASP RLD SiLT SLA Certificate in Advanced English Cambridge Advanced Learner s Dictionary Cambridge English Corpus Common European Framework of Reference for Languages Cambridge English Profile Corpus Centre International d Etudes Pédagogiques Cambridge Learner Corpus Certificate of Proficiency in English English Grammar Profile English Language Teaching English Profile Programme English Vocabulary Profile First Certificate in English International English Language Testing System Key English Test Mean Length of Utterance Preliminary English Test Robust Accurate Statistical Parser Reference Level Descriptions Studies in Language Testing Second Language Acquisition x in this web service www.cambridge.org