Nadine Normand-Marconnet

Is self-assessment a pedagogical challenge in an Islamic context?: A case study of Iranian students learning French

Abstract Iran can be considered an original example of a country in which the fusion of ancient civilizations, religions and cultures has produced an educational system at the border of tradition and modernity. Today, the country is facing a slow transition from one paradigm to another one: The essential components of the traditional Islamic educational system (e.g., memorization, rote learning of Islamic rules taught by the mollah – teacher – and to be strictly applied in all aspects of life) are in competition with Western pedagogies promoting independent learning. In this evolving context, we launched an innovative 2-year project to introduce a self-assessment portfolio in the French departments of two language institutes in Iran. The findings of the present paper contribute to further our understanding on the pedagogical challenges faced by students who experienced self-assessment in an educational context with a different educational perspective, e.g., teacher-centered and result-oriented. Besides the specificity of the Iranian context – largely influenced by the Islamic teaching tradition – it can be stated that perceptions of Iranian students are not different from the ones issued by students who are not familiar with self-reflective practices, whatever their educational context may be. Overall, they considered the experience as beneficial and raised common issues related to the reliability of the process and the inner capacity of a learner to self-assess and monitor his or her language proficiency’s improvement. Considering that the introduction of self-assessment actually leads to a major shift in the teacher’s role and status by empowering student in terms of goal-setting and decisionmaking processes, the main challenge emerging from this study therefore focuses on the reaction of the Iranian authorities. To what extent are they ready to accept and promote pedagogical initiatives like self-assessment in which the development of learners’ critical thinking could raise uncontrolled and subversive behaviors?

From West to East to West: A case study on Japanese wine manga translated in French

Author of a dozen reputable works on wine, M. Dovaz composed the foreword for the French translation of the Japanese graphic novel, Kami no Shizuku (2005), released in France as Les Gouttes de Dieu (2008). This manga has become a best-seller in its genre in France while the Japanese television adaptation has also reached a French audience through fansubs, allowing a new generation to gain access to that which had hitherto been seen as its own cultural patrimony. Integral to this wine culture is the ability to “talk about” its central object, in spite of linguistic or geographical separation. The central challenge being to efficiently associate words to a fleeting sensation provoked by visual, olfactory and gustative experience, a specific linguistic knowledge is necessary for those who wish to claim proficiency in wine. The critical narrative arc and didacticism of wine manga rests in the mastery of lexical sophistication as well as cultural knowledge, a posture also shared by most French experts. The language of wine, the power center of which once resided in France, has been brought into Japan through the act of translation. This very act has allowed for a shift in power—and thus the potential to represent the wine world—from France to Japan. We will show in this paper that there is an interplay occurring between French and Japanese media, producing a cultural space bridged through wine lexicon used in two series of manga recently translated into French (Sommelier in 2004 and Les Gouttes de Dieu in 2008). For this purpose, we will proceed to a comparative analysis of the Japanese source text with the French target text, highlighting metaphors used in wine culture. Through the analysis of the texts, we will demonstrate that the Japanese-French translations of these metaphors allow a new way for the French to see their culture through a lense provided by the Japanese sommelier.

The Common European Framework of Reference down under: A survey of its use and non-use in Australian universities

Abstract Today, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe 2001) is widely recognised as emblematic of globalization in education, both in the realms of policy and in educational practice (Byram et al. 2012a). In Europe the CEFR is regularly cited as a reference point for curriculum planning, and is often claimed to support greater transparency and coherence across the entire spectrum of language education. Despite substantial adoption of the CEFR beyond Europe, it has gained little ground in Australian higher education institutions. In order to understand this anomaly, and to analyse the underlying causes of the low traction the CEFR commands in Australia, this article reports on a study of the attitudes, knowledge and perceptions of academics and students collected through a nationwide online survey. The results suggest a perplexing situation, a combination of general unfamiliarity contrasted with pockets of positive acceptance of the CEFR in Australian universities. Moreover, the data suggest that respondents who are teachers are rather less concerned by claimed impediments to learning standards than some researchers and applied linguists who have made such criticism of the CEFR. The article also discusses some controversies that surround attempts to promote the CEFR for wider use. The aim is to contribute to local and international debate on the CEFR and to stimulate discussion about the roles and limits of its use as a universal language learning reference document and as a practical resource to support language teaching and assessment.

French bilingual classes in Vietnam: Issues and debates about an innovative language curriculum

Despite a long historical French presence in Vietnam, only 0.5% of Vietnamese people speak French today. As in other countries of South East Asia, language instruction in Vietnam has mainly focused on English for several decades. This paper provides an overview of a project called ‘French bilingual classes’. The main aim of the study is to analyze the benefits and the challenges identified by local teachers and researchers who have been involved in this program. The data are extracted from a corpus of 62 out of 468 papers written in French and presented during the annual Seminar on Action Research organized from 1999 to 2009 in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. The analysis of this discursive resource illustrates an overall acknowledgment of the positive outcomes of the program. However, in concordance with studies of English language teaching in Vietnam, the pitfalls identified in our corpus indicate that the major challenge is the implementation of a learner-centered and an action-oriented pedagogy in an educational context generally qualified as traditional. By providing new insights on bilingual education in Vietnam, our study will contribute to the current debate regarding the sustainability of innovative language curricula and multilingual education in the Asian context.