Effects of Climate Change on Vegetation in Mediterranean Forests: A review

A systematic literature review was undertaken to analyze the effects of climate change concerning the forests in the Mediterranean region as it is a climate and a global hot spot of biological diversity and the richest biodiversity region in Europe. Climate change threatens several eco-systems (e.g. forests) with ecological and socioeconomic importance. It is noteworthy that all warming scenarios in the Mediterranean predict an increase of drought and heat events, and a reduction in precipitation within the next hundred years in the Mediterranean basin with im-portant consequences in local vegetation communities. Forests can therefore be used as a tool in developing so-lutions to the problem of climate change. Nowadays, is considered necessary firstly to continue monitoring and research concerning climate change patterns and impacts on regional scales and secondly to implement manage-ment strategies in order to preserve Mediterranean habi-tats

The Impact of a SIG on Assessment Literacy

A major aim of professional associations is to provide opportunities for professionals to interact with others, share ideas and develop in their chosen profession. Professional associations exist to provide specialized networking and development opportunities to a specific profession, group of individuals or field of study. To promote and support specialized research and communication, smaller subgroups within an association are often chartered or developed. These subgroups are typically known as Special Interest Groups. According to Jacob et al. (2013), association members join SIGs because they want to go deeper into a specialized content area and they enjoy networking with others who ‘speak the same language.’ The TESOL Arabia Testing, Assessment and Evaluation SIG (TAE SIG) has focused their professional development activities on an important trend in the field, that of language assessment literacy (LAL). Language assessment literacy has been a critical topic in English language teaching since the late 1990s. Unfortunately, this is mainly due to the fact that so many English language teachers are not assessment literate. In other words, many English language teachers lack the knowledge and skills to write effective language tests, evaluate the effectiveness of their tests, and use their test results in meaningful ways. The purpose of this chapter is to critically examine the status of LAL in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and report on activities that the TAE SIG has implemented to increase LAL

Developing English language teachers' and learners' ELF awareness: The background, design and impact of the ENRICH project's continuous professional development programme

The paper presents the background, design, implementation and impact of the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme of the EU-funded ENRICH Project, which ran from 2018 to 2021. The programme, which has been freely available online since January 2022 (http://enrichproject.eu), aims at implementing the principles and processes of ELF awareness in empowering English language teachers to integrate the role of English as a Lingua Franca in their multilingual classrooms. We begin by justifying the development of the ENRICH Project with reference to the policies of the European Union supporting multilingualism and go on to discuss the principles of ELF awareness that informed the ENRICH CPD programme. We also present the priorities, target groups, key objectives and innovative practices of the ENRICH CPD programme. The paper is rounded up with a sample of participants' responses to certain CPD activities and with an appreciation of the impact of the programme on participant teachers and their learners. © 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston