Situating Strategy Use: The interplay of language learning strategies and individual learning characteristics | Alpen-Adria Universität Klagenfurt | October 2015 Dr Maria Stathopoulou Lecturer | National Technical University of Athens RCeL Research Fellow | University of Athens Tutor | Hellenic Open University Expert Member of the working group concerning the CEFR | Council of Europe

o selective extraction of information from a ST in one language and relaying it in another language for a given communicative purpose o interpretation of meanings articulated in STs & making of new meanings in the TL expressed appropriately for the context of situation (Dendrinos, 2006) o is a form of translanguaging (Stathopoulou, 2013, 2015) Involves interplay of languages: moving back and forth among different languages – no clear cut boundaries between languages What does mediation involve?

Cross-language mediation in the European context

“ In both the receptive and productive modes, the written and/or oral activities of mediation make communication possible between persons who are unable, for whatever reason to communicate with each other directly.” “Mediation language activities, (re)processing an existing text, occupy an important place in the normal linguistic functioning of our societies.”

Mediation in the CEFR (2001) ?

Cross-language mediation in the Greek context

National Foreign Language Exams (KPG exams, 2003) Integrated Foreign Languages Curriculum (2011) TEACHING TESTING RESEARCH (Stathopoulou, 2013, 2009)

Mingling-of- languages idea Multilingual testing Monolingual testing The innovation in the exams

Using information from the text below, write an (80 words) to your friend Dylan who is in Greece informing him about the Cultural Park of Athens and telling him what he can do there if he visits it. Mediation in the Greek national foreign language exams (KPG) : A B1 level example

..learners’ - ability to move back and forth between languages - ability to simultaneously draw on different linguistic and cultural resources from a variety of contexts. Mediation tasks assess…

Research on mediation

Research aim  to explore the mechanisms of cross-language mediation (in a testing context)  to investigate what strategies lead to successful mediation performance This paper:  examines the extent to which proficiency level affects mediation strategy use

Research organisation STAGE 1 Task analysis (KPG Task Database) STAGE 2 Textual analysis (Corpus of words) Typology of written mediation tasks Inventory of written mediation strategies (IWMS) THE CORPUS B1B2C1 No of words Phase Phase TOTAL NUMBER

Towards model development Analysis of a limited corpus (Exploratory) Phase 1 Preliminary category set Analysis of a large corpus Phase 2 Final category set

The Inventory of Written Mediation Strategies (IWMS)

Quantitative & qualitative analysis To what extent do task parameters and requirements affect written mediation- strategy use? Which strategies (and to what extent) differentiate successful from less successful mediation scripts? Which strategies (and to what extent) differentiate scripts of different proficiency levels?  To what extent does the linguistic realisation of mediation strategies in low level mediation scripts differ from the linguistic realisation of the strategies traced in high level scripts? Complementing the results derived from the statistical analysis with qualitative findings to investigate the potential for linguistic features related to specific mediation strategies to discriminate between texts written by low- and high- proficiency writers

The higher the proficiency level, the more scripts that include strategies of both types Strategies Proficiency level B1B2C1 Count % of B1 scripts Count % of B2 scripts Count % of C1 scripts Type A63,31910,673,9 Type B6536,12614,4137,2 Type A & B10860,012670,015988,3 none1,695,01,6 The higher the level, the less scripts including exclusively Type B strategies

The higher the level, the more scripts including the strategies of creative blending, combining and summarising

The higher the level, the greater the variety of strategies used simultaneously

The higher the level, the more words are used in order for creative blending, summarising and syntax level paraphrasing to be realised Number of words through which strategies are realised in scripts across proficiency levels Words Proficiency level B1B2C1 scriptsMeanscriptsMeanscriptsMean Creat.blending (sentence level) 2017,53023,15425,6 Creat.blending (text level) 2928,03235,48943,9 Summarising7144,710335,911184,0 Phrasal Paraphrasing534,1394,21004,8 Syntactic Paraphrasing1657,41358,51678,3

Qualitative analyses  focused on the frequently detected mediation strategies, (creative blending between extracted and extra-textual information, combining of extracted messages and paraphrasing): a) Analysis 1: focused on sentence semantics ( logico-semantic relations holding between clauses through which mediation strategies are realized ) b) Analysis 2: focused on sentence grammar ( lexico- grammatical patterns which differentiate syntax, phrase and word-level paraphrasing

Types of relations between low & high proficiency texts: examples

SYNTAX- LEVEL PARAPHRASING 1.Lexico-syntactic paraphrasing 2.Sentence level sentence structure change (compound> complex> simple) word order change voice change 3.Clause level clause structure change (main>subordinate) clause type change (enhancement, elaboration, extension) clause mood change (declarative, imperative, interrogative, exclamatory) clause relation change 4.Other re-structuring techniques rank change (sentence>clause> phrase) negative construction to statement (& vice versa) omission of certain lexical elements PHRASE-LEVEL PARAPHRASING 1.Phrase-level paraphrasing: phrase type change 2.Phrasal-level paraphrasing: rank change (phrase>word) WORD-LEVEL PARAPHRASING 1.rank change (word>phrase), same meaning3. Formal paraphrases 2.Semantic paraphrasesword class providing an equivalent word, same meaningnumber change providing an equivalent word, similar meaningtense change providing an equivalent word, slightly different meaning aspect change (progressive>perfect, perfect>progressive) providing a superordinate (generalisation)person change providing a subordinate (particularisation)

Quantitative and… qualitative analysis  Quantitative analysis: brought to the surface indications of differentiated strategy-use across tasks of different proficiency levels  Qualitative analysis: showed to what extent the linguistic means, through which mediation strategies are realized, differs as the level increases.

Contribution & usefulness of the study  The study constitutes a starting point for the development of descriptors for reliable assessment of mediation competence mediation strategies needed for learners of different levels when being involved in different mediation tasks the language to be used by learners at each proficiency level (Stathopoulou, 2013a, 2013b)

The book: o raises readers’ awareness regarding the ‘mingling-of languages idea’ in teaching and testing o stresses the urgent need for foreign language policies to consider cross-language mediation as a fundamental ability that language learners need to develop, o advocates the implementation of programmes aiming at the development of translanguaging and mediation strategies

Maria Stathopoulou