Abstract
This paper is part of an ongoing larger study, whose general goal is to identify, classify and explain features of Italian-Sardinian/English interlanguage (IL) of second-language English learners in samples of written language, against the CEFR levels of language competence. The research questions to which the paper will try to answer are as follows -Is there a correlation between these students' IL development and CEFR? -Is it possible to integrate IL analysis into language learning assessment? This preliminary descriptive study was carried out in a high secondary school in Sassari, in an Italian-Sardinian bilingual context. Two first-year classes (26 students) and two third-year classes (28 students) were tested for the first time in May 2013. The first-year students had been learning English for at least 7 years through formal instruction, and the third-year students for at least 9 years. All the students had been also learning a second foreign language, French or Spanish, for at least 3 years. The students were asked to produce three pieces of free composition, according to the CEFR “can do statements”. The manual correction of the written samples took into consideration the number of words used, the lexical, morphological and syntactical mistakes, using a qualitative and quantitative method of analysis. The influence of the Sardinian-Italian bilingual condition and of other languages was observed. The preliminary results show that there is little correspondence between CEFR levels and learners’ IL, and that teachers’ training in interlanguage development analysis would be of great benefit for teaching and assessment practices.
Author Information
Maria Antonietta Meloni,University of Sassari,Italy
Paper Information
Conference: ECLL2014
Stream: Testing and evaluation
This paper is part of the ECLL2014 Conference Proceedings (View)
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