Browsing by Subject "The English Teacher : -- An International Journal -- 2019"
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    Adapting CEFR for English language education in ASEAN, Japan and China
    (Assumption University Press, 2019) Foley, Joseph A.
    This paper will first outline and discuss the revised version of the Common European Framework of Reference Languages: Learning, teaching and assessment (CEFR) [ 2018] together with the Frameworks of Reference for English Language Education in Thailand Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan and China which are based on the CEFR. The indications are of potentially several issues that need to be addressed, including the fact that the local versions of CEFR were mainly based on the 2001 framework and not the 2018 which came later. Other issues such as using the same proficiency scales as the basis for rating scale criteria may lead to perceived equivalence but does not necessarily lead to greater comparability of shared criteria. There are also indications from a number of studies that the perceived view that CEFR as being mainly an assessment tool rather than about language competency may result in a negative attitude from both teachers, students and stake-holders.
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    Say what?: Filipino ESL learners’ semantic formula in expressing complaints
    (Assumption University Press, 2019) Caturay, Warlito Jr. Sanchez
    Complaining is one of the difficult tasks one has to do because when one complains, one does not only express some displeasure but also expects some form of repair. Hence, it is important for language learners to be taught how to effectively do so. Despite this, the teaching of the speech act of complaint has been taken for granted: either very little is included or it is absent in the language classroom instruction. This study attempts to examine how Filipino ESL learners structure their complaints. Featuring 18 situations calibrated on three social variables ( interlocutors’ social power and social distance, as well as the complainable acts’ degree of severity), the discourse completion task elicited respondents’ written expression of complaints, which were then analyzed using Schaefer’s (1982, as cited in Celce- Murcia & Olshtain, 2000) framework for analyzing the semantic formula of complaints. Results of the study provide a baseline data on respondents’ language of complaining, which provides many pedagogical implications and serves as a springboard for the development of classroom resource materials leading to an informed and judicious teaching of pragmatics.