Quality and the Common European Framework
Quality Language Learning -
The relevance of the Common European Framework
Frank Heyworth
Effective quality assurance and quality control are only possible if there
is agreement on basic principles and clear, commonly accepted descriptions
of the field of activity. The Common European Framework (CEF) provides
such a comprehensive set of descriptions and can, therefore, be used as
a key element in decisions on curriculum, on setting objectives, on assessment
of progress and achievement. It encourages users to reflect systematically
on the methodological and pedagogic options open to them and in this way
it can be a source of principled dialogue among the various actors involved
in quality management. The article is based on the revised version of
the CEF and on a chapter on quality assurance in the revised user guide.
"Quality" is a word much used in discussions about teaching
and learning, but it is often used as a vague container whatever meanings
the speaker and listener want to include. The term "quality management"
implies that it can be an operational concept - that it can be defined,
described, produced, observed, measured, assessed…. This paper will
explore the principles and processes involved in the application of quality
concepts in language teaching operations and the key importance of the
Common European Framework in providing a theoretical basis for doing this.
The CEF attempts a comprehensive description of the whole field of language learning and teaching, but the discussion will be restricted here to four key areas of special importance to quality issues:
1. The Common Scale of Reference
The scale descriptors in the scale of reference provide a set of statements, expressed in terms of communicative competence and which can therefore be applied across languages to provide a framework for setting objectives, talking about progress and describing achievement. This is of enormous importance for curriculum design as it allows institutions to define the language learning objectives in terms which are both commonly accepted and comparable. National curricula which adopt the scale as a basis for setting the standards for target achievement, for example, would be able to compare their standards of attainment with those of other countries.
The descriptors are coherently structured, as can be seen from the levels
at the two extremes:
A1 "Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and
very basic phrases aimed at satisfaction of needs of a concrete type.
Can introduce him / herself and can ask and answer questions about personal
details, such as where he/ she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she
has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly
and clearly and is prepared to help."
C2 "Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations."
All the statements are expressed as positive competences; they follow the same sequence of reception, production, interaction, and where necessary, mediation. They can be applied to specific areas of language use - the CEF itself gives a large number of exemplary scales and new ones can be constructed to meet the needs of specific language use. This means that different kinds of language learning can be referred back to a commonly accepted system of measurement; a qualification in French can be compared to a German examination; business language training is assessed within the same conceptual system as general language knowledge. In a way it is as though, for the first time, language learning has a system of weights and measures - one of the concerns of quality management is the possibility for clients to know not just what they are purchasing but to have an idea of the quantity.
2. The definition of language use and the language user
The introduction to the CEF summarises a major part of the content of the work as follows (1):
"Language learning activities are based on the needs, motivations, characteristics of learners:
What will they need to do with the language?
What will they need to learn in order to do what they want?
What makes them want to learn?
What sort of people are they?
What knowledge, skill and experiences do their teachers possess?
What access do they have to resources?
How much time can they afford to spend?"
A process-oriented approach to quality management requires an approach
to product design which analyses customer needs, the functions of various
components used, the quantities required, the production resources required;
these are connected with issues related to perceived and real value.
The CEF deals in detail with the choices open to those designing language
courses, either as teachers or managers; a systematic analysis of the
options available as answers to these questions will provide a coherent
and comprehensive guide to the issues involved in course design and will
ensure that it is centred on learners' needs, wishes and characteristics.
It can also serve as a checklist for quality control of course design.
The very detailed classification of user competences makes it possible
to take into account and choose what needs to be learnt.
3. The outline of methodological options
In Chapter 6 of the CEF there is a systematic account of general methodological options and application of these to particular areas teaching and learning - for example, pronunciation teaching, the development of listening and reading skills, the choice of texts and tasks, the choice of learning strategies, the teaching and learning of grammar. The options described for the choice of a general approach pose the central question of the balance between input and output; for providing opportunities for acquiring and using the language and for examining critically how instruction is to be structured. The CEF does not suggest "right" answers, but invites readers to reflect on the options open to them in a systematic way.
This, too, is relevant to the management of the quality of course design;
first of all, it encourages a comprehensive and reasoned approach to methodological
decisions and by listing the options aids the teacher or course planner
to make explicit the reasons for choosing one approach rather than another.
It also - by providing a "public" set of categories - makes
it easier to provide a transparent description of methodological choices
in a much more flexible and broadly based way than the adoption of a particular
"method" or a fashionable refuge in an eclectic approach. The
CEF promotes a reflective approach, involving both learner and teacher
in reflective processes and this involvement in itself is a feature of
a quality driven approach to learning and teaching. An example of the
reflective approach in this section will illustrate this (2):
"Learners may be expected to develop their study skills .. and responsibility
for their own learning:
a) simply as spin-off from language learning and teaching, without any special planning
b) by progressively transferring responsibility for learning from the teacher to the learners and encouraging them to reflect on their learning
c) by systematically raising the learners' awareness of the learning / teaching processes in which they are participating
d) by encouraging learners as participants in experimentation with different methodological options
e) by getting learners to recognise their own cognitive style and develop their own learning strategies accordingly.
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and state the steps they take to promote the development of pupils / students as responsibly independent language learners and users. "
4. The Framework as a resource for assessment
Quality management is divided into the complementary activities of quality assurance - steps taken, usually within an institution, to ensure the production of quality services - and quality control - action undertaken to check on the degree to which quality objectives are reached (and which can be both internal or external). There is therefore a need for reliable, valid assessment at all stages of quality management of language education; this includes assessment of the learners' language performance and achievement for purposes of placement at an appropriate level, for monitoring progress and for evaluating and certifying the level attained at the end of the course. It is also necessary to have instruments of assessment to evaluate the use and efficiency of the resources chosen, to evaluate teacher and staff performance, to check on how well the institution is fulfilling its declared aims.
Chapter 9 of the CEF provides a categorisation of the different approaches to assessment, which provides a conceptual basis for a reasoned choice of a range of procedures to meet the different needs of an institution. The contrasts between norm- and criterion-referencing, between achievement and proficiency, formative and summative evaluation are clearly presented and explained. There is advice on steps to be taken to improve the reliability and validity of testing procedures (3):
- "developing a specification for the content of the assessment.
- using pooled judgements to select content and/ or rate performances
- adopting standard procedures.
- providing definitive marking keys for indirect tests and basing judgements on specific defined criteria
- requiring multiple judgements and weighting of different factors"
In short it provides guidance for the kind of professional approach to the management of assessment which is an essential feature of managing quality.
Conclusion
Quality management in language education requires the application
of a set of relatively simple principles; the need to set standards and
objectives and to communicate these to the stakeholders in a transparent
and clear way; carrying out a proper analysis of the components involved
in delivering language education and a reasoned choice among the available
methodological options for doing this; the development of systematic approaches
to finding out how well you are succeeding in meeting your aims with adequate
and appropriate assessment tools. In other words:
Say what you're doing
Do what you say you are doing
Check that you are really doing what you say you are doing
The coherent description of language learning and teaching contained in
the CEF contributes to be able to achieve all three of these aims - being
able to describe what one is doing in terms which are common to a range
of practitioners; being able to analyse the task systematically because
the relevant categories have been described; and by the provision of a
coherent approach to assessment, especially in the creation of the scale
of reference and its descriptions of levels.
Bibliography
- The Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages p.12 Cambridge, CUP
- The Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages p.149 Cambridge, CUP
- The Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages p.188 Cambridge, CUP
