Local organiser: Ludmilla Stefani, Quality Assurance Agency in Pre-University Education

ECML experts: Rita Juknevičienė, Lithuania; José Noijons, the Netherlands

Participants: 26 (language testers and examiners, item writers, teachers and teacher trainers, curriculum developers, language inspectors, policymakers)

“The workshop was held in the context of the RELANG initiative (part of the ECML-EU cooperation agreement) in cooperation with QAAPUE (Quality Assurance Agency in Pre-University Education), with a focus on the module ‘Relating existing language examinations to the common European reference levels of language proficiency: promoting quality assurance in education and facilitating mobility’. It was a continuation of an earlier RELANG workshop given in 2018 and 2019 on ‘Relating existing tests and examinations to the CEFR and its Companion Volume.’

The participants in the workshop were policy makers, curricula developers, trainers, item writers and test developers and language teachers (English, French, German, Italian, Albanian and Greek).

The aims of this follow-up workshop were as follows:

• raising the awareness of language testers and examiners, item writers and curriculum developers, policy makers of the need of including speaking and listening in the national exams and further relating existing tests and examinations to the CEFR and its Companion Volume as a must for quality assurance in assessment and national exams.
• participants will be introduced to the principles of valid and reliable language testing (listening and speaking elements) in relation to the CEFR model of language use as well as to the principles of linking examinations to the CEFR and its Companion Volume.
• support materials will be developed and adopted to the specific needs of the Center for Education Services (CES).

Specific results:

• the CES will be supported to adopt tests and Examinations in relation to CEFR for the four language skills.
• the CES expert team will continue to train teacher trainers on how to develop listening and speaking items and link the whole process of assessment to the CEFR and its Companion Volume.
• tests templates will be designed in relation to the CEFR and its companion for school and classroom use.”

Ludmilla Stefani, local organiser, 12 November 2021

ECML project website: RELANG – EU-ECML cooperation agreement 2020-2021 "Innovative methodologies and assessment in language learning"