The CEFR’s focus on communicative effectiveness means that the focus now shifts from learning decontextualized grammar or vocabulary as ends in themselves to a contextualized approach through communicative tasks and activities. “Communicative pedagogic tasks aim to actively involve learners in meaningful communication. They are relevant, challenging but feasible and have identifiable outcomes.” (CEFR, 2011 p.157). […]
How can I deal with diverse levels of prior knowledge in one class?
There is never enough classroom time to help weaker students ‘catch up’. Teachers who diagnose specific gaps in students’ prior knowledge of grammar can assign specific ECOSTAR grammar resources for independent study to provide additional explanations and practice.
How can ECOSTAR Resource Bank’s grammar resources help teachers?
There is now no need to re-invent the wheel. There are overwhelming numbers of grammar exercises already out there, freely available on the Internet. The ECOSTAR team has carefully reviewed a large number of websites to find and select resources that provide clear explanations and well-constructed exercises with feedback, that facilitate independent study on CEFR-related […]
How can the ECOSTAR Resource Bank’s grammar resources help students?
The Bank’s grammar resources enable students to ‘level the playing field’ by enabling them to: identify grammar competences that most learners already have in place before they start specific CEFR-aligned levels. self-assess their own levels to identify possible gaps. use interactive resources with teaching points and feedback for independent study to close gaps on their […]
Where do ECOSTAR’s grammar resources come from?
The grammar resources in the ECOSTAR Resource Bank have been collected from a wide range of institutions and individuals. These sources include sites recommended by ECOSTAR’s European partners, who have taught CEFR-aligned English courses for many years (special thanks to our EU partners Lil Ercole, Fatima Bassi and Sonia Munteanu). Additional sources of material are […]
How can teachers and students access ECOSTAR’s grammar resources?
The Bank’s Independent Learning Resources zone contains a curated collection of over 100 instructional resources that cover grammar topics required for CEFR levels (which are related to the levels of the Framework for English Teaching in Higher Education in Israel). These resources include interactive exercises with feedback, teaching points and hints to facilitate independent learning.
How do I know which grammar competences learners typically acquire at the different CEFR levels?
Two Internet websites clearly describe typical grammar profiles of learners worldwide at each CEFR level: English Grammar Profile http://www.englishprofile.org/english-grammar-profile . Cambridge University Press, together with leading researchers and the British Council, used the multi-million word Cambridge English Corpus to compile a comprehensive list of grammar features that learners typically know at each of the six […]
