scholarly journals Validating Communicative Tests of Reading and Language Use of Classical Greek

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
David Coniam ◽  
Polyxeni Poupounaki-Lappa ◽  
Tzortzina Peristeri

Abstract This paper builds on the work presented previously in this journal by Poupounaki-Lappa et al. (2021), which described the development of a communicative test of Reading and Language Use of Classical Greek calibrated to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) at levels A1 and A2 (Council of Europe, 2001). In the current paper, the two tests of Classical Greek are calibrated both together and to the CEFR. In addition to describing the methodology for comparing the two separate tests of Classical Greek, the paper is also designed to be of interest to educators of other classical languages. It is hoped that they may find it useful not only by facilitating robust test design, but also by demonstrating the methods by which tests can be linked together on a common scale (as with the CEFR) or linking tests one to another (e.g., different end-of-year tests, at different points in time).

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Tabernacka

The ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence in Poland was preceded by a heated debate. From the very beginning it was be object of political battles between the conservative and liberal circles. Culturally and socially conditioned position of women has influenced its operation and the scope of its implementation. The Convention is a universally binding tool which guarantees the protection of human rights in events of violence against the woman and children. The case of this Convention in Poland proofs the existence of a universal European understanding of human rights protection standards. The Convention thus has a protective function not only for individuals but also, in a broader context, for the common European cultural identity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (22) ◽  
pp. 13
Author(s):  
Maria Rosario Bautista Zambrana

This paper aims to analyse the extent to which the textbook for German as a foreign language DaF kompakt A1 (Sander et al., 2011) complies with the recommendations of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (Council of Europe, 2001) (hereafter CEFR) in respect to lexical competence and sociolinguistic competence in receptive and productive activities, specifically with regard to phraseological units. In this respect, we have focused on sentential formulae and fixed frames present in a corpus containing the textbook materials, and we have checked whether those fixed expressions correspond to the phraseological and sociolinguistic compe-tences that are expected in the Framework for an A1 level student of German language. To this end, we have compiled a corpus of the textbook receptive and productive materials, made up by three subcorpora: one for the written texts, one for the oral texts, and a third subcorpus containing exercises. We have performed a quantitative analysis (by means of AntConc 3.4.4 [Anthony, 2016] and kfNgram [Fletcher, 2007]), and a qualitative one. Our results suggest that the textbook complies with the recommendations of the CEFR.


Author(s):  
Giacinto della Cananea ◽  
Mauro Bussani

This book is about judicial review of public administration. Many have regarded this as dividing European legal orders, with judicial review of administrative action in the general courts or specialized administrative courts, or with different distance from the executive. There has been considerably less comparison of the basic procedural and substantive principles. The comparative study in this book of procedural fairness and propriety in the courts reveal not only differences but also some common and connecting elements, in a ‘common core’ perspective. The book is divided into four parts. The first explains the nature and purpose of a comparison to understand the relevance and significance of commonality and diversity between the legal systems of Europe, and which considers other legal systems which are more or less distant and distinct from Europe, such as China and Latin America. The second part contains an overview of the systems of judicial review in these legal orders. The third part, which is the heart of the ‘common core’ method, contains both a set of hypothetical cases and the solutions, according to the experts of the legal systems selected for our comparison, to the cases. The fourth part serves to examine the answers in comparative terms to ascertain not so much whether a ‘common core’ exists, but how it is shaped and evolves, also in response to the influence of supranational legal orders as the European Union and the Council of Europe.


2021 ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Ulrich Stelkens

This chapter examines a research project carried out at the German Research Institute of Public Administration and the German University of Administrative Sciences Speyer. This 'Speyer project' studies the development, content, and effectiveness of the written and unwritten standards of good administration drawn up within the framework of the Council of Europe (CoE), i.e. on the basis of its Statute (SCoE) and the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which is a sort of 'second pillar' of the CoE. These CoE standards are called 'pan-European principles of good administration'. This 'Speyer project' can be understood as a counterpart to the project carried out by Giacinto della Cananea and Mauro Bussani on the Common Core of European Administrative Law (CoCEAL) as it has a similar objective: to ascertain whether, despite many differences between European systems of administrative law, there are some connecting elements, or a 'common core', and, if so, whether such 'connecting elements' can be formulated in legal terms rather than as generic idealities. However, the methodological approach of the 'Speyer project' clearly differs from the 'factual approach' adopted in CoCEAL.


2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seiichi Suzuki

This paper provides a typological account of Old Germanic metre by investigating its parametric variations that largely determine the metrical identities of the Old English Beowulf, the Old Saxon Heliand, and Old Norse eddic poetry (composed in fornyrðislag, málaháttr, or ljóðaháttr). The primary parameters to be explored here are the principle of four metrical positions per verse and the differing ways in which these constituent positions are aligned to linguistic material. On the one hand, the four-position principle works with a maximal strictness in Beowulf, and to a slightly lesser extent in fornyrðislag, whereas it allows for a wider range of deviations in verse size in the Heliand and ljóðaháttr. In málaháttr, however, the principle in itself gives way to the five-position counterpart. On the other hand, the variation in the metrical– linguistic alignment in the three close cognate metres may be generalised by positing the common scale, Heliand > Beowulf > fornyrðislag, for the decreasing likelihood of resolution, the increasing likelihood of suspending resolution, and the decreasing size of the drop.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Doris Stolberg

AbstractIt is well known that migration has an effect on language use and language choice. If the language of origin is maintained after migration, it tends to change in the new contact setting. Often, migrants shift to the new majority language within few generations. The current paper examines a diary corpus containing data from three generations of one German-Canadian family, ranging from 1867 to 1909, and covering the second to fourth generation after immigration. The paper analyzes changes that can be observed between the generations, with respect to the language system as well as to the individuals’ decision on language choice. The data not only offer insight into the dynamics of acquiring a written register of a heritage language, and the eventual shift to the majority language. They also allow us to identify different linguistic profiles of heritage speakers within one community. It is discussed how these profiles can be linked to the individuals’ family backgrounds and how the combination of these backgrounds may have contributed to giving up the heritage language in favor of the majority language.


Author(s):  
Daniela Thurnherr

This chapter discusses the reception of the ECHR in Austria and Switzerland. Topics covered include the accession and ratification of the ECHR in both countries, the status of the ECHR in national law, an overview of the activity of the European Court of Human Rights, and the ECtHR's case law and its effects on the national legal order. Although both countries joined the ECHR at a relatively early stage, this starting position led to different outcomes. The main reason is because the common denominators of neutrality and federalism in these two countries are actually rather small: as Austria follows a very different concept of neutrality, it did not face any (political) difficulties before and during the ratification process. Switzerland, on the other hand, was very reluctant to join the Council of Europe and careful to avoid any concessions with regard to neutrality.


2009 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-606 ◽  
Author(s):  
SABRINA BILLINGS

ABSTRACTThis article considers language use in Tanzanian beauty pageants, where contestants’ onstage speech is the focus of explicit and implicit critique. In particular, contestants who speak English are far more likely to win than are their Swahili-speaking counterparts. But because English has limited circulation and is restricted to the educated elite, speaking English is, for most contestants, possible only through memorization. Local ideologies that give preference to purity over standardness mean that, while contestants’ speeches are often full of grammatical oddities, their linguistic posturing is typically well received. Yet once a contestant reaches the pinnacle of competition, expectations for language use rise, and once-successful contestants find themselves at a glass ceiling. Findings presented here point to the local and hierarchical nature of language ideologies, and to the need to account for the common practice in multilingual communities of successfully employing “incomplete” linguistic knowledge for indexical and referential effect. (Language ideology, multilingualism, Swahili, English, language purity, beauty pageants, education)*


Author(s):  
Edward Telles ◽  
Christina A. Sue

Despite the common perception that most persons of Mexican origin in the United States are undocumented immigrants or the young children of immigrants, the majority are citizens and have been living in the United States for three or more generations. On many dimensions of integration, this group initially makes strides on education, English language use, socioeconomic status, intermarriage, residential segregation, and political participation, but progress on some dimensions halts at the second generation as poverty rates remain high and educational attainment declines for the third and fourth generations, although ethnic identity remains generally strong. In these ways, the experience of Mexican Americans differs considerably from that of previous waves of European immigrants who were incorporated and assimilated fully into the mainstream within two or three generations. This book examines what ethnicity means and how it is negotiated in the lives of multiple generations of Mexican Americans.


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