Class design and evaluation that promotes learners' thinking, judgment, expression and ability to learn

Abstract

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) are effective in facilitating the learning of foreign languages. Professor Emiko Izumi, Graduate School of Education, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan, is seeking to enhance motivation for foreign language learning among children and students using language activities and a can-do evaluation scale that facilitates self-efficacy and autonomy. The plan is for the effectiveness of the evaluation scale to be quantitatively and qualitatively verified. The can-do evaluation scale was developed by a team of 14 researchers and teachers with various specialities, including Professor Naoyuki Naganuma, an expert in language learning motivation and language testing theory, and Professor Mitsue Allen-Tamai, who has extensive experience in English education as a university teacher and has also taught English to toddlers and children. The evaluation scale is designed to be user orientated and help develop a set of performance-related scales. The team has developed can-do lists primarily concerned with a language proficiency scale for use in elementary school English. The researchers want individuals to conceptualise their personal goals in order that they can be motivated and their progress can be visualised. Classroom activities and evaluation are designed to encourage children's learning, support the learning process, foster autonomy, and promotes learners' ability to think, judge, express and learn.