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The Impact of the CEFR on Teaching and Assessing Romanian as a Second/Foreign Language. Practice and Research

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Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education

Part of the book series: Multilingual Education ((MULT,volume 27))

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Abstract

This chapter is divided into two main parts. In the first part, we discuss some of the main criticism that the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment (CEFR) has received over the years, such as native speaker reference, relationship with Second Language Acquisition research or empirical validation of the CEFR levels and descriptors, as well as some suggestions for further development. In the second part of the chapter, we will describe the way the document has been used (or misused) in the Romanian National Educational System and the consequences that the approach adopted has had on the way languages are learned and taught in Romanian state schools. We will then assess the influence of the CEFR on learning, teaching and assessing Romanian, in areas such as curriculum development, designing teaching and testing material and teacher training. We will describe the process of adopting the framework and adapting it to three contexts: teaching Romanian as a foreign language in higher education, teaching Romanian as a second language to national minorities and teaching Romanian as a native language. We will finally show how the CEFR has been used in order to create appropriate instruments for building a coherent system in distinct context, with different purposes, but unified by the same basic principles.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For more details on the relationship between CEFR and curriculum design from primary school to high school refer back to Chapters “Laying the Foundation of Foreign Language Acquisition – the Cases of Educational Policies and English Textbook Design” and “On some of the challenges of teaching formal English linguistics” of this volume.

  2. 2.

    Grosu-Rădulescu deals in more detail with these particular aspects in the chapter Constructing and construing the place of Romanian foreign language education in the European context (in this volume).

  3. 3.

    http://www.ubbcluj.ro/en/despre/prezentare/misiune

  4. 4.

    http://www.ubbcluj.ro/en/despre/prezentare/misiune

  5. 5.

    For more information as well as access to sample papers see Romanian Ministry of Education 2017b.

  6. 6.

    See http://programe.ise.ro

  7. 7.

    See http://programe.ise.ro

  8. 8.

    Roxana-Magdalena Bârlea further discusses this issue in her chapter Teaching Romanian as a foreign language. Formal and non-formal education perspectives in this volume.

  9. 9.

    RLNM, „Perfecţionarea cadrelor didactice, din învăţământul preuniversitar, care predau limba română minorităţilor naţionale” Contract POSDRU/87/1.3/S/63909. http://rlnm.didacticalimbiiromane.ro/home/

  10. 10.

    For more information see http://invatam.ro/

  11. 11.

    EVRO - „Perfecționarea cadrelor didactice care predau limba română în învățământul preuniversitar în evaluarea competențelor de comunicare ale elevilor”. Contract POSDRU/157/1.3/S/133900

    http://evro.didacticalimbiiromane.ro/proiect

  12. 12.

    For more information regarding the results of the projects mentioned in the current section, see:

    http://video.elearning.ubbcluj.ro/?page_id=2584

    and

    http://www.didacticalimbiiromane.ro/

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Romanian Language, Culture and Civilisation, Faculty of Letters, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

    Ioana-Silvia Sonea

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  1. Ioana-Silvia Sonea
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Modern Languages and Business Communication, Faculty of International Business and Economics, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

    Lucia-Mihaela Grosu-Rădulescu

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Sonea, IS. (2018). The Impact of the CEFR on Teaching and Assessing Romanian as a Second/Foreign Language. Practice and Research. In: Grosu-Rădulescu, LM. (eds) Foreign Language Teaching in Romanian Higher Education. Multilingual Education, vol 27. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93329-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93329-0_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-93328-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-93329-0

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