12 The CEFR Companion Volume and Mediation: An Assessment Perspective
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Driving and Embracing Change: Learning and Teaching Languages and Communication in Higher Education
When considering the title of this book, we, as its editors, had to reflect on the notion of change. Change is constant and inevitable, but fundamental changes do not happen overnight. Such changes result from actions and measures that address deep, complex and interrelated systemic issues, and thus require a shift in mindset. Fifty years ago, Gregory Bateson (1972/2000), an early advocate for ecological thinking, warned that solving the challenges facing society requires a re-examination of the ideas that have dominated thought since the industrial revolution. For Bateson, ecological thinking meant more than adding an environmental perspective and implied the need to revisit the core values and principles that form the basis of societies. Similarly, in the field of education, as Selby (2000) has argued, ecological thinking involves a shift to a more holistic worldview and an awareness of the interconnections and interdependencies of power issues influencing culture, development, environmental and social justice, equity, health, and peace, as well as the interplay between our outer and inner worlds and between different disciplinary epistemologies. These ideas have special significance in the dynamic landscape of contemporary higher education, which faces complex challenges and often unforeseen and/or unpredictable changes and events, such as shifts in government policy or the COVID-19 pandemic. The constantly evolving changes necessitate strategic, future-oriented planning and decision-making in addressing the most critical questions relevant to universities today: the provision of education that is accessible and equitable to all and that meets the changing needs of economies and societies; internationalisation and the growing linguistic and cultural diversity at universities alongside the increasing dominance of English in academia; financial sustainability and the increasing competition for funding; technological advancements; and the well-being of both students and staff. These questions are linked to larger social, economic, geopolitical, technological, ideological, and environmental changes, which directly or indirectly influence higher education: intensifying global migration, deepening social inequalities, escalating armed and cyber conflicts and threats, increasing political/ideological polarisation, the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation that diminishes trust in science, ethical issues surrounding AI, and the impending environmental crisis. On a more practical level, interest and investment in learning languages other than English is diminishing. These challenges are relevant in the Finnish higher education context, too, and they require flexibility and continuous adjustments not only in institutional strategies and frameworks but also in mindsets, pedagogical practices, and working cultures.
Driving and Embracing Change: Learning and Teaching Languages and Communication in Higher Education
When considering the title of this book, we, as its editors, had to reflect on the notion of change. Change is constant and inevitable, but fundamental changes do not happen overnight. Such changes result from actions and measures that address deep, complex and interrelated systemic issues, and thus require a shift in mindset. Fifty years ago, Gregory Bateson (1972/2000), an early advocate for ecological thinking, warned that solving the challenges facing society requires a re-examination of the ideas that have dominated thought since the industrial revolution. For Bateson, ecological thinking meant more than adding an environmental perspective and implied the need to revisit the core values and principles that form the basis of societies. Similarly, in the field of education, as Selby (2000) has argued, ecological thinking involves a shift to a more holistic worldview and an awareness of the interconnections and interdependencies of power issues influencing culture, development, environmental and social justice, equity, health, and peace, as well as the interplay between our outer and inner worlds and between different disciplinary epistemologies. These ideas have special significance in the dynamic landscape of contemporary higher education, which faces complex challenges and often unforeseen and/or unpredictable changes and events, such as shifts in government policy or the COVID-19 pandemic. The constantly evolving changes necessitate strategic, future-oriented planning and decision-making in addressing the most critical questions relevant to universities today: the provision of education that is accessible and equitable to all and that meets the changing needs of economies and societies; internationalisation and the growing linguistic and cultural diversity at universities alongside the increasing dominance of English in academia; financial sustainability and the increasing competition for funding; technological advancements; and the well-being of both students and staff. These questions are linked to larger social, economic, geopolitical, technological, ideological, and environmental changes, which directly or indirectly influence higher education: intensifying global migration, deepening social inequalities, escalating armed and cyber conflicts and threats, increasing political/ideological polarisation, the proliferation of misinformation and disinformation that diminishes trust in science, ethical issues surrounding AI, and the impending environmental crisis. On a more practical level, interest and investment in learning languages other than English is diminishing. These challenges are relevant in the Finnish higher education context, too, and they require flexibility and continuous adjustments not only in institutional strategies and frameworks but also in mindsets, pedagogical practices, and working cultures.
The terms of Ukrainian language education (in particular, methods of teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language) are part of a professional language that is constantly evolving, absorbing new concepts from world didactics and specifying existing ones. The newly formed microsystems of terms need to be standardized, unified, and mostly harmonized in order to coordinate them with foreign equivalents. All this determines the relevance of the proposed study. The purpose of the article is to analyze the semantic paradigm of the term writing, to distinguish specific terms and describe the concepts they denote, as well as to suggest ways of terminology standardization and harmonization. To achieve this goal, a descriptive method and a method of component analysis were used. Elements of the comparative method were used to compare Ukrainian and foreign equivalents. The term writing in Ukrainian language education denotes a productive type of speech activity. Mastering writing means mastering graphic symbols, being able to use them to capture the idea, and as a result – to develop the ability to create text. In order to standardize the professional language, it is proposed to use a special unit of writing, which naturally complements the system of speech activities: reading, speaking, listening. According to the criterion of «goal», a group of terms is distinguished: academic, practical and creative writing. According to other criteria, different types of writing are systematized (for example, collective, pair, individual; controlled, partially controlled, independent). Often their form is not yet established in the professional language. Thus, the analysis showed the patterns of formation of the paradigm of the term writing on various grounds and revealed problematic moments in the formation of the analyzed system of terms. The proposed terms (the scope of which is defined on the basis of how they function in language education) with an attempt to outline the definition can be the basis for terminology standardization and harmonization.
The article analyses descriptors of written mediation proficiency levels and corresponding strategies presented in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment – Companion volume, as well as assesses their applicability to teaching specialized translation to prospective Bachelors of Philology. The B2 – C2 level proficiency descriptors of such types of written mediation as translating a written text in writing (full translation), relaying specific information in writing (fragmentary translation), processing text in writing (summary and abstract translation) can serve a basis for formulating corresponding descriptors of specialized translation proficiency levels for 3d – 4th – year Bachelor’s degree Philology students. These descriptors should be modified with regard to field-specific text genres and supplemented with professional translation skills of applying translation techniques and IT tools. Descriptors of English into Ukrainian and Ukrainian into English translation as well as those of summary and abstract translation should be differentiated. The examined strategies – strategies to explain a new concept (adapting language, breaking down complicated information), strategies to simplify a text (amplifying a dense text, streamlining a text) – which partly correlate with translation techniques and transformations are appropriate for developing sets of tasks and exercises in translation subjects, in particular, Translation and Interpreting Practice. Their choice depends on translation brief requirements: aim, text genre, degree of formality / specialization, degree of target text compression, target audience. Making these modifications is the subject of further research.
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