The aim of this study originated with my role as a teacher wanting to research the impact of the European Language Portfolio, ELP, (2001) on a small group of minority language students, in Brussels’ Flemish region. In this exploratory case study, the European Language Portfolio (Spanish model) was administered to a small group of forty-five primary school students from the Bicultural Foyer Project in Brussels. In spite of the students’ positive attitudes towards this portfolio, the results suggest that the ELP has no validity for them because the Brussels’ Flemish educational community does not offer the appropriate conditions for a possible broader use of this portfolio. Belgium’s language policy environment, including its language policies, is the fundamental reason for the non-implementation of the European Language Portfolio.

The purpose of this study is to find out the required teacher competencies in the implementation of the Common European Framework (CEF) and the English Language Portfolio (ELP) and to explore the perceptions of teachers about their current and desired competencies defined by CEF and ELP. The required competencies for the teachers are defined in the book calledCommon European Framework of Reference for Languages. This book being a reference for the whole European Union countries, identifies required teacher competencies under four common European principles / a graduate profession, a profession placed within the context of lifelong learning, a mobile profession, a profession based on partnerships, and three key competencies / work with information, technology and knowledge, work with their fellow human beings &ndash / learners, colleagues and other partners in education, and work with and in society - at local, regional, national, European and broader global levels. A group of 40 teachers randomly selected at the Department of Basic English, School of Foreign Languages at the Middle East Technical University participated in this case study. A questionnaire about required teacher competencies in the implementation of the CEF and the English Language Portfolio was administrated to these teachers and the results were analyzed quantitatively and with the use of the descriptive and exploratory statistics. The findings obtained revealed that the teachers that participated in the questionnaire found themselves to be very competent in the required teacher competencies defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, however, they would like to have to be experts in these competencies and also they have found these competencies to be very important.

This diploma thesis deals with the topic Binomials in German, Czech and English. The theoretical part defines the basic terminology related to phraseology and phraseologisms. Furthermore, the theoretical part describes the definition and classification of binomials. The first part contains the gathered German binomials which are compared with their Czech and English equivalents using methods of contrastive phraseology which is described in the theoretical part. The expressions are compared on the basis of the classification of types of equivalence according to Helgunde Henschel (1993). In the second part are introduced results of analysis of textbooks and workbooks that correspond to reference levels A1 B1 according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The aim of this part is to gather binomials and further analyse them. The third part focuses on presentation of preparation of one teaching lesson that includes binomials.

It is my wish, within the scope of this thesis, to assist teachers at secondary schools who are making a decision about the right choice of books for their stu-dents. It involves an analysis of available German textbooks for beginners, with regards to the choice of topics. In connection with my thesis I also prepared a questionnaire which was distributed among 50 students of secondary schools with the aim to elicit the point of view of the target group. The aim of this thesis is to assess the samples of German textbooks in the Czech market so that they correspond to the criteria of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. For the analysis there has been chosen the sample of textbooks which appear commonly at Czech secondary schools. These include textbooks published by both Czech and German publishing houses, to be specific Německy s úsměvem nově, studio d A1, Sprechen Sie Deutsch? 1. and Themen aktuell 1. Originally I intented to analyse Tangram aktuell 1 instead of Themen aktuell 1 by the the same publisher, but since the first mentioned one is usually used for teaching, I decided for Themen aktuell 1. I have come to the conclusion that it is not possible to create an ideal textbook of either German or any other foreign language, because every student considers a different topic to be important, they have different values and motivation which drives them to learn a foreign language. That is also an implication resulting from the questionnaire in which students evaluated the importance of topics according to their own judgement and preferences.

Abstract This study examines Continuing Education (ContEd) administrators’ understanding of the notion of plurilingualism (PL) and its application in the context of Grade 9 to 12 International Languages (IL) classrooms in Ontario. Through cross-case analysis and a phenomenological lens, the perspectives of 17 administrators from across Ontario were analyzed in reference to PL as it is elaborated in the CEFR and the 2016 IL curriculum. Participants expressed a need for administrators to learn about PL-inspired classroom practices in order to guide and train IL teachers, to foster innovation in the immersion context of IL classrooms, and to advocate for IL and PL in the broader school system. The implications are far-reaching and touch on professional development for IL administrators and teachers, student motivation, and discursive practices in IL and the broader school system. The study contributes to theory on PL, SLE research about PL in the IL context, and administrators in the ContEd context.

The present study focuses on how the European Language Portfolio (ELP) can be used in a Swedish school. More particularly it aims at exploring how a group of teachers have adapted the use of the material to their particular pedagogical situation. It also aims at finding out what the same group of teachers identifies as the ELP’s strengths and possible weaknesses.For this purpose, a case study was carried out in which semi-structured interviews were conducted with four language teachers at an upper secondary school in the south of Sweden. Although the teachers started out using the official ELP 16+, only the language passport has been kept. The teachers have adapted the rest of the material to their own situation. Three different adaptations were identified and presented. Moreover, the teachers identified a number of areas that they saw as the ELP’s strengths. Among these areas were the material’s compatibility with the Swedish steering documents and the language biography (in adapted versions). When asked about the possible weaknesses, the teachers’ main concerns were the standard checklists and the fact that working with the ELP is time-consuming in different ways.

The following dissertation aims to scrutinize amongst other things, some English teachers’ beliefs and thoughts concerning communicative language teaching at two schools in Sweden and France. Since the steering documents of both countries clearly promote a communicative approach to language teaching, we wanted to see how it could be applied in these two different contexts as well as how it was interpreted by some teachers. With the information obtained from qualitative interviews and classroom observations, we juxtapose what the teachers have said with the steering documents for both countries, their implementations of CLT and the teaching methods adopted in general. In order to do this, an analysis and comparison of the two syllabuses for English was necessary and we also needed to set a foundation by discussing the theories and possible complexities of CLT and teacher beliefs. This discussion could not be valid without also taking into account the status and influences of the English language in Sweden and France.The analysis of the two steering documents showed similar ideas about language teaching. However, Sweden has a separate syllabus for English, whilst France has a joint one for foreign languages. Furthermore, from our interviews and classroom observations we found that all teachers taught grammar in their native language. We also found the French school to be more traditional in that the lessons were often teacher-centered and that the teachers did not allow for any errors in the spoken language. The difference in discipline between the schools was another finding which we found surprising. Finally, our results also indicate occasional discordance between the teachers’ thoughts and ideals and their actions in the classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what pupils who study Spanish as a foreignlanguage in the senior level of the nine year compulsory school, think about how theylearn to talk Spanish. What is their opinion about what it takes to be able to speak andcommunicate in Spanish? And what type of exercises do they prefer? This paper alsoaims at investigating if the pupils understand the importance of reading, writing andlistening to as much Spanish as possible if they want to be good at talking Spanish. Inour investigation are we using the Common European Framework of Reference forlanguages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) and other theories that supporttheir conclusions. A quantitative method is applied, a questionnaire is given to 108students in the seventh, eighth and ninth grade in a school in the southern part ofSweden.The results of the questionnaire have shown that when it comes to learn to talkSpanish the pupils believe most in practicing talking in Spanish. 72% of the pupils haveanswered that they agree completely with this assertion. They also understand theimportance of the teacher speaking Spanish during class, 58% completely agree that thisis important. Talking Spanish is classed as output, and listening to the teacher talkingSpanish goes under the term input. The type of activity that they prefer when they talkSpanish is to talk in small groups with friends/classmates, 38% of the pupils think thatthis is the best method. The activity that they prefer the least is to make presentations infront of the class (11%). We have also calculated by using Fisher´s exact test if there isa connection between how they have answered the questions and their age and gender.In only one case was there a connection with statistical certainty. The test showed thatwhen it comes to speaking when everyone is listening, the girls are those whoexperience it hardest to do.

This study looks at the application of the anchoring vignettes method in evaluating university students' level of English language. The theoretical part of the study describes the possibilities of language level measurement, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and outlines the anchoring vignette method. Works of other authors using this method in different fields (including pedagogy) are also mentioned. One chapter is dedicated to self- assessment and its synonyms - how they are used in practice and research. The practical part presents the results of the author's original survey. Questionnaires were administered on pedagogical and business students in the comparison of self-assessment and objective knowledge survey. This work has illustrated the diversity of usage of the self-assessment scales, undervaluation of the students and the difference between the self-evaluation before and after the correction by the anchoring vignettes. In addition, the findings of this study show that the order of the self-assessment scale and the anchoring vignettes in the questionnaire matters and that placing the vignettes after the self-assessment is preferable.

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