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European Survey on Language Competences
18 February 2008
Cambridge ESOL is part of a consortium which has been awarded a contract by the European Commission to develop a Europe-wide survey of languages.
The European Survey on Language Competences aims to be a key tool for European governments to use in developing language-learning policies and is part of the European Commission’s aim to ‘improve the mastery of basic language skills in Europe’ and ‘establish a linguistic competence indicator’. It will help governments to understand existing levels of second language proficiency and how those levels compare to other countries. It will also provide information on how language proficiency relates to demographic, social, economic and educational variables. Information in the survey can then be used to influence policy and improve national standards.
The survey will compare second language learning for pupils in the final year of lower secondary education across using the scales of the Common European Framework of References for Languages (CEFR). It will focus on the two most popular foreign languages studied in each of the participating countries from English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.
The SurveyLang consortium comprises internationally-recognised expert organisations in the fields of language assessment, surveys and sample design and psychometrics. SurveyLang consists of (in alphabetic order):
- Centre international d’etudes pedagogiques (CIEP) - France
- Gallup
- Goethe-Institut - Germany
- Instituto Cervantes - Spain
- National Institute for Educational Measurement (Cito) - The Netherlands
- University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations - UK
- Universidad de Salamanca - Spain
- Università per Stranieri di Perugia – Italy
Cambridge ESOL will co-ordinate the work of the SurveyLang consortium.
