Sprachmittlung und Mediation im Fremdsprachenunterricht an Schule und Universität
The CEFR action-oriented approach presents the user/learner as a social agent mobilizing, combini... more The CEFR action-oriented approach presents the user/learner as a social agent mobilizing, combining and extending language and general competences plus strategies through carrying out language activities in the accomplishment of tasks in specific contexts. The CEFR outlines four modes of communication: reception and production (= the traditional four skills), plus interaction and mediation. These modes of communication are articulated into a range of possible language activities for which the CEFR provides descriptors for different proficiency levels. However, in contrast to interaction, mediation was not elaborated in 2001, with the limited presentation focusing on informal interpretation and translation, despite hints of deeper impli
Tlumaczenie dokumentu Rady Europy stanowiącego zesptaw wytycznych tej instytucji odnośnie do spos... more Tlumaczenie dokumentu Rady Europy stanowiącego zesptaw wytycznych tej instytucji odnośnie do sposobu realizacji polityki jezykowej,
Page 1. 1 MODULE ONE TITLE: The Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning, Tea... more Page 1. 1 MODULE ONE TITLE: The Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning, Teaching and Assessment AIM: Familiarisation with the CEFR and a critical reflection on its use ONLINE ACTIVITY: Contribute ...
The notion of mediation has been the object of growing interest in second language education in r... more The notion of mediation has been the object of growing interest in second language education in recent years. The increasing awareness of the complex nature of the process of learning – and teaching – stretches our collective reflection towards less explored areas. In mediation, the immediate focus is on the role of language in processes like creating the space and conditions for communication and/or learning, constructing and co-constructing new meaning, and/or passing on information, whilst simplifying, elaborating, illustrating or otherwise adapting input in order to facilitate the process concerned. At a deeper level though, the notion of mediation embraces a broader spectrum of dimensions and connotations. Mediation has been defined as a ‘nomadic notion’ (Lenoir 1996) insomuch as it is at the core of a variety of scientific disciplines and the term ‘mediation’ is used in different senses in different contexts.
This article deals with the linking of examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference... more This article deals with the linking of examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Following the rapid adoption of the CEFR by the Council of Europe and the European Union as well as many national and local actors, there have been calls for guidance on how examinations could be made more transparent by means of the CEFR, especially by using its calibrated scales as a tool. The Council of Europe has recently produced a preliminary pilot Manual, which presents a procedure for doing this. The article describes the political and educational context of this work and presents the main procedures proposed in the Manual. Since the Manual is a preliminary document for discussion and feedback, the authors of the Manual join the discussion by presenting some critical reflections of their own. The article concludes by outlining two scenarios: one which predicts positive developments and the other which foresees less desirable consequences.
This article is organized in two parts: Sections 1-3 concern the CEFR Companion Volume, describin... more This article is organized in two parts: Sections 1-3 concern the CEFR Companion Volume, describing briefly what it is, what it contains, the paradigm shift it seeks to foster, and how it was developed. The second part, sections 4-6, goes into more detail on the action-oriented approach, giving an overview in section 4, an explanation of the crucial concept of the social agent in section 5, and a discussion of the three key aspects of the approach – affordances, agency and collaborative tasks – in section 6. Il QCER Volume complementare e l’approccio orientato all’azione Questo articolo è organizzato in due parti: Le sezioni 1-3 riguardano il Volume Complementar del QCER, descrivendo brevemente che cos’è, cosa contiene, il cambiamento di paradigma che cerca di promuovere e come è stato sviluppato. La seconda parte, le sezioni 4-6, approfondisce l’approccio orientato all’azione, fornendo, nella sezione 4, un quadro di riferimento, nella sezione 5 una spiegazione del cruciale crucia...
This paper gives a brief overview of the significance of the CEFR (Common European Framework of R... more This paper gives a brief overview of the significance of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and its key aspects for teaching and learning. Starting with a reminder of the key characteristics of the CEFR, the paper outlines its origins in the work of the Council of Europe in the 1970s and the development following the intergovernmental Symposium in Switzerland that recommended both a common European framework with an accompanying portfolio. The paper then goes on to discuss which of the innovative aspects of the CEFR were taken up quickly (e.g. levels, 'can do descriptors', self-assessment), and which largely had to wait until the field would be ready for them. Among the latter one finds concepts such as the learner as a social agent, the move beyond the four skills model, the action-oriented approach, mediation, and plurilingual/ pluricultural competence. It is precisely these aspects which, twenty years after the initial development, are the mai...
TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics
The publication Enriching 21st Century Language Education: The CEFR Companion Volume in practice ... more The publication Enriching 21st Century Language Education: The CEFR Companion Volume in practice (North et al., 2022) presents a series of case studies with contributions from 15 countries following the launch of the new edition of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages – the CEFR Companion Volume (Council of Europe, 2020; henceforth CEFR CV) – at the event CEFR Companion Volume: Language Education for Dynamic and Inclusive Societies: Promoting plurilingual and pluricultural education held in Strasbourg in May, 2018, during which the participants (academics, teachers and experts in various fields) were invited to form networks and plan case studies. This short text seeks to place the resulting volume of case studies in context.
The Linking Process 2.1. Approach Adopted 2.2. Quality Concerns 2.3. Stages of the Process 2.4. U... more The Linking Process 2.1. Approach Adopted 2.2. Quality Concerns 2.3. Stages of the Process 2.4. Use of the CEFR 2.5. Use of the Manual 2.1. Approach Adopted Relating an examination or test to the CEFR is a complex endeavour. The existence of a relationship between the examination and the CEFR is not a simple observable fact, but is an assertion for which the examination provider needs to provide both theoretical and empirical evidence. The procedure by which such evidence is obtained is in fact the "validation of the claim". Relating (linking) examinations or tests to the CEFR presupposes standard setting, which can be defined as a process of establishing one or more cut scores on examinations. These cut scores divide the distribution of examinees' test performances into two or more CEFR levels. Appropriate standards can be best guaranteed if the due process of standard setting is attended to from the beginning. Standard setting involves decision making which requires high-quality data and rigorous work. As these decisions may have important consequences, they need to be fair, open, valid, efficient and defensible. This can be facilitated by the use of well-tried systematic processes and explicit criteria. In standard setting, it is usual to refer to content standards and performance standards. Content standards describe the content domain from which the examination can be or has been constructed. Very frequently this description refers to performance levels. Such descriptions are by necessity general and usually formulated in qualitative terms. In standard setting literature they are referred to as "Performance Level Descriptors" (PLDs: See Section 6.7.) and act as a general reference system against which particular examinations can be described. Performance standards refer to specific examinations and express the minimum performance on that specific test or examination; in this sense they are synonymous to "cut scores". There is, however, one major point which needs to be stressed. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) provides the content and Performance Level Descriptors. The PLDs are given, unlike the situation in most standard setting in other contexts, where the PLDs first need to be defined. This means that the CEFR needs to be referred to at all stages of the linking process as illustrated in Figure 2.1. The approach adopted in this Manual is such that thorough familiarity with the CEFR is a fundamental requirement. Standard Setting (Chapter 6): The crucial point in the process of linking an examination to the CEFR is the establishment of a decision rule to allocate students to one of the CEFR levels on the basis of their performance in the examination. Usually this takes the form of deciding on cutoff scores, borderline performances. The preceding stages of Familiarisation, Specification and Standardisation can be seen as preparatory activities to lead to valid and rational decisions. Chapter 6 describes procedures to arrive at the final decision of setting cut scores. The material presented there draws on an extensive literature on standard setting, and the procedures presented in Chapter 6 are a selection from the many available procedures deemed to be suitable in the context of language testing. Additional procedures based on the exploitation of teacher judgments and IRT to incorporate an external criterion (e.g. CEFR illustrative items, or teacher assessments with CEFR illustrative descriptors) into a linking study are presented in Extra Material provided by Brian North and Neil Jones. Validation (Chapter 7): While the preceding stages of Familiarisation, Specification, Standardisation and Standard Setting can be conceived roughly to represent a chronological order of activities, it would be naïve to postpone validation activities until everything has been done, and to conceive it as an ultimate verdict on the quality of the linking process. Validation must rather be seen as a continuous process of quality monitoring, giving an answer to the general question: "Did we reach the aims set for this activity?" A simple, but nevertheless important example has already been referred to: it is important to provide CEFR familiarisation and standardisation training, but it is equally important to check if such activities have been successful; this is precisely what is meant by validation. Aspects of validity and procedures to collect validity evidence are described in this final chapter. Aspects of validity and procedures on how to collect validity evidence have been put together in the final chapter (Chapter 7) of this Manual. 2.4. Use of the CEFR A common framework of reference enables different examinations be to related to each other indirectly without any claim that two examinations are exactly equivalent. The focus of examinations may vary but their coverage can be profiled with the categories and levels of the framework. In the same way that no two learners at Level B2 are at Level B2 for the same reason, no two examinations at Level B2 have completely identical profiles. The parts of the CEFR most relevant for linking examinations are: Chapter 3 "The Common Reference Levels"; Chapter 4 "Language Use and the Language User"with scales for Communicative Language Activities and for Communicative Language Strategies; Chapter 5 "The User/Learner's Competences", particularly Section 5.2 "Communicative Language Competences" with the illustrative scales for aspects of linguistic, pragmatic and socio-linguistic competence. Users of this Manual will find the full text of the CEFR and related documents, plus a number of useful tools on the Council of Europe website, including the following: Documents The CEFR in English and French, including appendices. Links to other language versions on the Council of Europe website (www.coe.int/lang; www.coe.int/portfolio) The Manual, including appendices. The forms and reference Grids included in the Manual. 12 The Reference Supplement. Content Analysis Grids CEFR Content Analysis Grid for listening and reading (sometimes referred to as "the Dutch CEFR Grid"): Appendix B1. CEFR Content Analysis Grids for speaking and writing, developed by ALTE: Appendix B2.
Theoretical issues underlying the development of scales of language proficiency are examined. Fir... more Theoretical issues underlying the development of scales of language proficiency are examined. First, a brief classification of scale types is presented, and problems identified in them and advantages they offer are outlined. Discussion then moves to the issues of describing and measuring language proficiency. In this section, behavi. ally-based scales in work performance, the historical development of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Interagency Language Roundtable (ACTFL/ILR) proficiency guidelines, the utility of the Rasch model in rating framework development, and subjectivity in judgments and observed behavior ratings are discussed. A many-faceted version of the Rasch item-response theory model is suggested as an instrument that may aid in the mapping of behaviors onto a common metric while identifying different interpretation of the same descriptors by different types and groups of users. Contains about 250 references. (MSE)
Brian North has spent his career at the interface between research, practical implementation of i... more Brian North has spent his career at the interface between research, practical implementation of innovation in language teaching, and quality management. As a result he combines developmental, investigative and statistical skills with management and coordination expertise. He has extensively collaborated with the Council of Europe as a project coordinator and consultant. He spent most of his long career at Eurocentres, an official NGO to the Council of Europe since 1968, which teaches languages where they are spoken. There he developed an integrated approach to curriculum, assessment and certification and implemented it across languages. In his PhD thesis he developed the levels and descriptors for the CEFR. After coordinating the 1991 intergovernmental Symposium that recommended the CEFR, he co-authored the CEFR itself, the prototype European Language Portfolio, the Manual for relating examinations to the CEFR, Eaquals' Core Inventories for English and French, and the European Profiling Grid for language teacher competences (EPG). He was
which aimed to develop a scale of language proficiency in the form of a ‘descriptor bank’. Up unt... more which aimed to develop a scale of language proficiency in the form of a ‘descriptor bank’. Up until now, most scales of language proficiency have been produced by appeal to intuition and to those scales which already exist rather than to theories of linguistic description or of measurement. The intention in this project was to use an item-banking methodology to develop a flexible scale of stand-alone criterion statements with known difficulty values. The project took place in two rounds: the first for English (1994), the second for French, German and English (1995). In each year pools of descriptors were produced by analysing available proficiency scales. Through workshops with rep-resentative teachers, the descriptors were then refined into stand-alone criterion statements considered to be clear, useful and relevant to the sectors concerned. Selected descriptors presented on questionnaires were then used by participating teachers to assess the proficiency of learners in their class...
The EAQUALS Profiling Grid for Language Teachers seeks to summarise the key features of qualifica... more The EAQUALS Profiling Grid for Language Teachers seeks to summarise the key features of qualifications and competences at different stages of a language teacher’s development. The current version is given as an appendix to this paper. It is a “grid ” because it has two axes. One axis is provided by three broad stages of development “Basic, ” “Independent ” and “Proficient”, which deliberately echo the three broad
Sprachmittlung und Mediation im Fremdsprachenunterricht an Schule und Universität
The CEFR action-oriented approach presents the user/learner as a social agent mobilizing, combini... more The CEFR action-oriented approach presents the user/learner as a social agent mobilizing, combining and extending language and general competences plus strategies through carrying out language activities in the accomplishment of tasks in specific contexts. The CEFR outlines four modes of communication: reception and production (= the traditional four skills), plus interaction and mediation. These modes of communication are articulated into a range of possible language activities for which the CEFR provides descriptors for different proficiency levels. However, in contrast to interaction, mediation was not elaborated in 2001, with the limited presentation focusing on informal interpretation and translation, despite hints of deeper impli
Tlumaczenie dokumentu Rady Europy stanowiącego zesptaw wytycznych tej instytucji odnośnie do spos... more Tlumaczenie dokumentu Rady Europy stanowiącego zesptaw wytycznych tej instytucji odnośnie do sposobu realizacji polityki jezykowej,
Page 1. 1 MODULE ONE TITLE: The Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning, Tea... more Page 1. 1 MODULE ONE TITLE: The Common European Framework of Reference for Language Learning, Teaching and Assessment AIM: Familiarisation with the CEFR and a critical reflection on its use ONLINE ACTIVITY: Contribute ...
The notion of mediation has been the object of growing interest in second language education in r... more The notion of mediation has been the object of growing interest in second language education in recent years. The increasing awareness of the complex nature of the process of learning – and teaching – stretches our collective reflection towards less explored areas. In mediation, the immediate focus is on the role of language in processes like creating the space and conditions for communication and/or learning, constructing and co-constructing new meaning, and/or passing on information, whilst simplifying, elaborating, illustrating or otherwise adapting input in order to facilitate the process concerned. At a deeper level though, the notion of mediation embraces a broader spectrum of dimensions and connotations. Mediation has been defined as a ‘nomadic notion’ (Lenoir 1996) insomuch as it is at the core of a variety of scientific disciplines and the term ‘mediation’ is used in different senses in different contexts.
This article deals with the linking of examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference... more This article deals with the linking of examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR). Following the rapid adoption of the CEFR by the Council of Europe and the European Union as well as many national and local actors, there have been calls for guidance on how examinations could be made more transparent by means of the CEFR, especially by using its calibrated scales as a tool. The Council of Europe has recently produced a preliminary pilot Manual, which presents a procedure for doing this. The article describes the political and educational context of this work and presents the main procedures proposed in the Manual. Since the Manual is a preliminary document for discussion and feedback, the authors of the Manual join the discussion by presenting some critical reflections of their own. The article concludes by outlining two scenarios: one which predicts positive developments and the other which foresees less desirable consequences.
This article is organized in two parts: Sections 1-3 concern the CEFR Companion Volume, describin... more This article is organized in two parts: Sections 1-3 concern the CEFR Companion Volume, describing briefly what it is, what it contains, the paradigm shift it seeks to foster, and how it was developed. The second part, sections 4-6, goes into more detail on the action-oriented approach, giving an overview in section 4, an explanation of the crucial concept of the social agent in section 5, and a discussion of the three key aspects of the approach – affordances, agency and collaborative tasks – in section 6. Il QCER Volume complementare e l’approccio orientato all’azione Questo articolo è organizzato in due parti: Le sezioni 1-3 riguardano il Volume Complementar del QCER, descrivendo brevemente che cos’è, cosa contiene, il cambiamento di paradigma che cerca di promuovere e come è stato sviluppato. La seconda parte, le sezioni 4-6, approfondisce l’approccio orientato all’azione, fornendo, nella sezione 4, un quadro di riferimento, nella sezione 5 una spiegazione del cruciale crucia...
This paper gives a brief overview of the significance of the CEFR (Common European Framework of R... more This paper gives a brief overview of the significance of the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) and its key aspects for teaching and learning. Starting with a reminder of the key characteristics of the CEFR, the paper outlines its origins in the work of the Council of Europe in the 1970s and the development following the intergovernmental Symposium in Switzerland that recommended both a common European framework with an accompanying portfolio. The paper then goes on to discuss which of the innovative aspects of the CEFR were taken up quickly (e.g. levels, 'can do descriptors', self-assessment), and which largely had to wait until the field would be ready for them. Among the latter one finds concepts such as the learner as a social agent, the move beyond the four skills model, the action-oriented approach, mediation, and plurilingual/ pluricultural competence. It is precisely these aspects which, twenty years after the initial development, are the mai...
TEANGA, the Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics
The publication Enriching 21st Century Language Education: The CEFR Companion Volume in practice ... more The publication Enriching 21st Century Language Education: The CEFR Companion Volume in practice (North et al., 2022) presents a series of case studies with contributions from 15 countries following the launch of the new edition of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages – the CEFR Companion Volume (Council of Europe, 2020; henceforth CEFR CV) – at the event CEFR Companion Volume: Language Education for Dynamic and Inclusive Societies: Promoting plurilingual and pluricultural education held in Strasbourg in May, 2018, during which the participants (academics, teachers and experts in various fields) were invited to form networks and plan case studies. This short text seeks to place the resulting volume of case studies in context.
The Linking Process 2.1. Approach Adopted 2.2. Quality Concerns 2.3. Stages of the Process 2.4. U... more The Linking Process 2.1. Approach Adopted 2.2. Quality Concerns 2.3. Stages of the Process 2.4. Use of the CEFR 2.5. Use of the Manual 2.1. Approach Adopted Relating an examination or test to the CEFR is a complex endeavour. The existence of a relationship between the examination and the CEFR is not a simple observable fact, but is an assertion for which the examination provider needs to provide both theoretical and empirical evidence. The procedure by which such evidence is obtained is in fact the "validation of the claim". Relating (linking) examinations or tests to the CEFR presupposes standard setting, which can be defined as a process of establishing one or more cut scores on examinations. These cut scores divide the distribution of examinees' test performances into two or more CEFR levels. Appropriate standards can be best guaranteed if the due process of standard setting is attended to from the beginning. Standard setting involves decision making which requires high-quality data and rigorous work. As these decisions may have important consequences, they need to be fair, open, valid, efficient and defensible. This can be facilitated by the use of well-tried systematic processes and explicit criteria. In standard setting, it is usual to refer to content standards and performance standards. Content standards describe the content domain from which the examination can be or has been constructed. Very frequently this description refers to performance levels. Such descriptions are by necessity general and usually formulated in qualitative terms. In standard setting literature they are referred to as "Performance Level Descriptors" (PLDs: See Section 6.7.) and act as a general reference system against which particular examinations can be described. Performance standards refer to specific examinations and express the minimum performance on that specific test or examination; in this sense they are synonymous to "cut scores". There is, however, one major point which needs to be stressed. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) provides the content and Performance Level Descriptors. The PLDs are given, unlike the situation in most standard setting in other contexts, where the PLDs first need to be defined. This means that the CEFR needs to be referred to at all stages of the linking process as illustrated in Figure 2.1. The approach adopted in this Manual is such that thorough familiarity with the CEFR is a fundamental requirement. Standard Setting (Chapter 6): The crucial point in the process of linking an examination to the CEFR is the establishment of a decision rule to allocate students to one of the CEFR levels on the basis of their performance in the examination. Usually this takes the form of deciding on cutoff scores, borderline performances. The preceding stages of Familiarisation, Specification and Standardisation can be seen as preparatory activities to lead to valid and rational decisions. Chapter 6 describes procedures to arrive at the final decision of setting cut scores. The material presented there draws on an extensive literature on standard setting, and the procedures presented in Chapter 6 are a selection from the many available procedures deemed to be suitable in the context of language testing. Additional procedures based on the exploitation of teacher judgments and IRT to incorporate an external criterion (e.g. CEFR illustrative items, or teacher assessments with CEFR illustrative descriptors) into a linking study are presented in Extra Material provided by Brian North and Neil Jones. Validation (Chapter 7): While the preceding stages of Familiarisation, Specification, Standardisation and Standard Setting can be conceived roughly to represent a chronological order of activities, it would be naïve to postpone validation activities until everything has been done, and to conceive it as an ultimate verdict on the quality of the linking process. Validation must rather be seen as a continuous process of quality monitoring, giving an answer to the general question: "Did we reach the aims set for this activity?" A simple, but nevertheless important example has already been referred to: it is important to provide CEFR familiarisation and standardisation training, but it is equally important to check if such activities have been successful; this is precisely what is meant by validation. Aspects of validity and procedures to collect validity evidence are described in this final chapter. Aspects of validity and procedures on how to collect validity evidence have been put together in the final chapter (Chapter 7) of this Manual. 2.4. Use of the CEFR A common framework of reference enables different examinations be to related to each other indirectly without any claim that two examinations are exactly equivalent. The focus of examinations may vary but their coverage can be profiled with the categories and levels of the framework. In the same way that no two learners at Level B2 are at Level B2 for the same reason, no two examinations at Level B2 have completely identical profiles. The parts of the CEFR most relevant for linking examinations are: Chapter 3 "The Common Reference Levels"; Chapter 4 "Language Use and the Language User"with scales for Communicative Language Activities and for Communicative Language Strategies; Chapter 5 "The User/Learner's Competences", particularly Section 5.2 "Communicative Language Competences" with the illustrative scales for aspects of linguistic, pragmatic and socio-linguistic competence. Users of this Manual will find the full text of the CEFR and related documents, plus a number of useful tools on the Council of Europe website, including the following: Documents The CEFR in English and French, including appendices. Links to other language versions on the Council of Europe website (www.coe.int/lang; www.coe.int/portfolio) The Manual, including appendices. The forms and reference Grids included in the Manual. 12 The Reference Supplement. Content Analysis Grids CEFR Content Analysis Grid for listening and reading (sometimes referred to as "the Dutch CEFR Grid"): Appendix B1. CEFR Content Analysis Grids for speaking and writing, developed by ALTE: Appendix B2.
Theoretical issues underlying the development of scales of language proficiency are examined. Fir... more Theoretical issues underlying the development of scales of language proficiency are examined. First, a brief classification of scale types is presented, and problems identified in them and advantages they offer are outlined. Discussion then moves to the issues of describing and measuring language proficiency. In this section, behavi. ally-based scales in work performance, the historical development of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages/Interagency Language Roundtable (ACTFL/ILR) proficiency guidelines, the utility of the Rasch model in rating framework development, and subjectivity in judgments and observed behavior ratings are discussed. A many-faceted version of the Rasch item-response theory model is suggested as an instrument that may aid in the mapping of behaviors onto a common metric while identifying different interpretation of the same descriptors by different types and groups of users. Contains about 250 references. (MSE)
Brian North has spent his career at the interface between research, practical implementation of i... more Brian North has spent his career at the interface between research, practical implementation of innovation in language teaching, and quality management. As a result he combines developmental, investigative and statistical skills with management and coordination expertise. He has extensively collaborated with the Council of Europe as a project coordinator and consultant. He spent most of his long career at Eurocentres, an official NGO to the Council of Europe since 1968, which teaches languages where they are spoken. There he developed an integrated approach to curriculum, assessment and certification and implemented it across languages. In his PhD thesis he developed the levels and descriptors for the CEFR. After coordinating the 1991 intergovernmental Symposium that recommended the CEFR, he co-authored the CEFR itself, the prototype European Language Portfolio, the Manual for relating examinations to the CEFR, Eaquals' Core Inventories for English and French, and the European Profiling Grid for language teacher competences (EPG). He was
which aimed to develop a scale of language proficiency in the form of a ‘descriptor bank’. Up unt... more which aimed to develop a scale of language proficiency in the form of a ‘descriptor bank’. Up until now, most scales of language proficiency have been produced by appeal to intuition and to those scales which already exist rather than to theories of linguistic description or of measurement. The intention in this project was to use an item-banking methodology to develop a flexible scale of stand-alone criterion statements with known difficulty values. The project took place in two rounds: the first for English (1994), the second for French, German and English (1995). In each year pools of descriptors were produced by analysing available proficiency scales. Through workshops with rep-resentative teachers, the descriptors were then refined into stand-alone criterion statements considered to be clear, useful and relevant to the sectors concerned. Selected descriptors presented on questionnaires were then used by participating teachers to assess the proficiency of learners in their class...
The EAQUALS Profiling Grid for Language Teachers seeks to summarise the key features of qualifica... more The EAQUALS Profiling Grid for Language Teachers seeks to summarise the key features of qualifications and competences at different stages of a language teacher’s development. The current version is given as an appendix to this paper. It is a “grid ” because it has two axes. One axis is provided by three broad stages of development “Basic, ” “Independent ” and “Proficient”, which deliberately echo the three broad
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