European Symposium on Benchmarking Chinese Language欧洲汉 力基准 会

Friday 19th October and Saturday 20th October 2012Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium

Chinese eurocompatible ? Where the problem is

The EBCL Project

Joël BELLASSEN (INALCO, research team: PLIDAM /

Ministry of National education, Paris - FRANCE)

New and common needs, new and common standards

The languages in the era of mobility

ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, 1983 : USA

ILR scale, 1983 : USA

CLB (Canadian Language Benchmarks), 1996

TOEFL (1964), PTE General (1982), DELF / DALF (1985), HSK

(1990), New HSK (2010)...

… CECRL 欧洲的语言共同参考框架欧洲的语言共同参考框架欧洲的语言共同参考框架欧洲的语言共同参考框架 , 2001

� Translanguage tool

� A Common European

Framework of Reference

introducing a new descriptive

scheme for language education

and a system of Common

Reference Levels. This

language scale can be used to

compare language skills and

certificates.

From a question I asked in 2001…

european framework for languages…

or

framework for european languages ?

The swing of pendulum:

From focusing on « reference », « framework » …

to focusing on « common? »

We know where we are going,

…but how long is the road ?

Need of didactical contextualization

Distance

�With respect to a given language

�With respect to a given user

High frequency words and transparencyFrench to English(0,5/10) French to Italian(8/10)

• Involve Impliquer implicare

• Require avoir besoin avere bisogno

• Likely probablement probabile

• Apply faire une demande fare domanda

• Further plus loin più lontano

• Scheme plan piano

• Pick choisir scegliere

• Design conception progetazzione

• Statement declaration dichiarazione

• Feature caractéristique caratteristica, aspetto

Isolating language vs agglutinative language

Morphological richness vs poverty

Use measure words vs not

Subject proeminent vs Theme proeminent

Syntaxic fonction order SVO, SOV, VSO, VOS, OSV, OVS

Word order (determiner word/ determined word)

Place of interrogative words

Phonological richness vs poverty

Prosody (rythmic accent, tonic accent, tone)

Directional postpositions

Cadrage verbal : il entra en courant vs … ou cadrage satellitaire :

beyond the vocabulary…

• a modern city Go out!

• 现代化城市 出去！

• Une ville moderne Sors !

• Una città moderna uscite !

Distance table

French user Writing system Vocabulary Phoneticsgrammar Sociolinguistics

English

Italian

German

Chinese

English user Writing systemVocabulary phonetics grammar Sociolinguistics

Chinese

Subjective distance, cognitive preferencesSubjective distance, cognitive preferencesSubjective distance, cognitive preferencesSubjective distance, cognitive preferences

Contextualization and Chinese as a distant language

1. Take into account the identity of a given language2. Remind to the forgotten sentence of the father of the modern linguistics, Saussure: « For the Chinese, writing is as a second language. »3. Be discerning in the question of the time needed to reach the CEFR levels in a given language, 4. and to take a fresh look at the written language activities of second writing system languages:

the contextualization of Chinese as a distant language comes at this price.

Chinese language as …

� Tonal language� Orthoepic competence proeminent language� Logographic writing system� Theme proeminent language

A1 Can understand (or write)

short, simple messages on postcards (CEFR).

Short, but …

• 時尚家居時尚家居時尚家居時尚家居

• 門市人員

• 無經驗可，月休五天，享勞健保,保障底薪+高獎金

• 87918138郭先生

• 蘆洲市 區槐樹二路19號1樓

So nice, but…

…frightening !

Short and nice, but…

Babelian confusion in the field of Chinese language

Benchmarking and assessment

ECBL EU co-funded Project

European Benchmarking Chinese Language

The European Benchmarking Chinese Language Project (EBCL) is an EU-funded project. The main aim of the project is to create a benchmark framework for Chinese, based upon the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), for people in Europe who learn Chinese either as part of their lifelong learning pursuit, or for professional purpose or as part of the school activities, as a common portable framework of standards.

Ways …

one of the aims of the project was to identify areas in which the specific nature of the Chinese language called for adjustments to the framework. For example, it might be necessary to install levels of linguistic competence below level A1 – levels that would provide a foundation for action-oriented language use.

the greatest challenge facing learners of Chinese is that of learning to read and to write – particularly to read – because of the use of non-alphabetic script. Learners had to learn characters, and this in line with the principle of frequency.

In a certain manner, in Chinese to read is the end of the road

1

� Distinguish writing level and sinographic level

� Accept that from a didactical point of view, Chinese has

two units: word and sinogram

� Accept that Chinese learning include non communicative

content: sinography

� Design steps of characters as condition for performing

writing language activities

sinographic steps for CEFR（Joël Bellassen, Zhang Li, 2008）

C2 Up to 3000 sinograms …

2200 sinograms …

B2 1500 sinograms over that 5000 words

800 sinograms ~ 2500 words

A2 500 sinograms ~ 1200 words

A1 250 sinograms ~ 500 words

听 打打打打 One more language activity

� An extension of the application of « partial

competence » to Chinese: distinguish handwriting

activity and keyboarding activity.

• An active competence (writing) combined with a passive skill (recognize the characters)

3

Contextualized tools

� Design contextualized tools (test, portfolio,

language biography, etc.)

4

Cultural competence

• Set cultural competence levels

Bibliography

《欧洲语言共同参考框架》，外语教学与研究出版社，2008Statement of the Fachverband Chinesisch e.V. (Association of Chinese Teachers in German Speaking Countries) on the new HSK Chinese Proficiency Test, June 2010

BELLASSEN Joël, ZHANG Li (2008). <欧洲语言共同参考框架>新理念对汉语教学的启示与推动. 北京 : 世界汉语教学 », n°3.

GUDER Andreas (2007).面向欧美学生汉语教学的观察与思考, 第八届国际汉语教学讨论会论文集 . 北京 : 高等教育出版社, 11-19.

ROBERT Jean-Pierre, ROSEN Evelyne (2010), Dictionnaire pratiqueCadre européen des langues, Ophrys.

ROSEN Evelyne (2007), Le point sur le Cadre EuropéenCommunRéférence pour les Langues, CLE.

TSAI Ya-Hsun (2009).以CEFR為華語能力指標之網路華語分級評量題庫建置 (Test de compétence du chinois en ligne conçu d’aprèsle CECRL) 新加坡 : « Teaching and Learning of Chinese as a Second Language Singapore Centre for Chinese Language.

谢谢！Thank you!

Merci !