First European Survey on Language Competences

I have been following the project to assess the level of European students' language competence since I first heard about the initiative when preparing to give a general picture of European language learning and teaching at the 21st APPI conference back in 2007 in Lisbon.

ANNE ROBINSON - Where are we heading? This talk will examine the main trends in English Language teaching in Europe. Areas such as starting age, contact hours, content-based learn- ing, teacher training and qualifications will be covered. 

Talk – All Teacher Development – Young Learners Room: Paris (150 seats)

I knew from the Surveylang website that the first survey had been carried out an that the results and findings were due to be published in 2012.

I remember checking the Surveylang website back in May to see whether the findings would be published soon.  They seemed imminent, but were not on the site yet.

The survey tested the two most widely taught European languages (from English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) in each country from a representative sample of pupils in their final year of lower secondary education.

The survey assessed students’ proficiency in listening, reading and writing. A sample of approximately 1,500 students per language tested, per country was used.

So while reading through an email with updates from Its magazine, I was rather surprised to find that when I followed the link below to the news article, that it was reporting the results of the Surveylang survey.  

Teenagers in England, France and Spain are among the least competent at languages. From BBC News. http://bbc.in/Lm4gne

Why was I surprised?  Because I hadn't heard a thing about the publication of the findings, yet I try and keep up to date with articles in the press on language teaching and learning, I receive emails from various organisations, I do a lot of work for the University of Cambridge ESOL (who were VERY much involved in the survey) and friends and colleagues very often pass on news like this.

Yet I hadn't heard a thing about the results being published!   Highly surprising!!!

I thought that this news (and the findings from the survey) would be very relevant and of interest to a lot of you out there, so I decided to write this post!

Here are the links to the final report  (241 pages long!)  It contains lots of information about the survey and the results.  I was impressed by the tasks participants were asked to complete in order to assess their reading, writing and listening skills.  (Speaking was not assessed in this survey)

and also to the Executive Summary (15 pages).

You can also read all about the Survey and the findings on the University of Cambridge ESOL's website here.

Preparing teenagers for the PET exam

I have met Emma Heyderman several times in San Sebastian and in Bilbao.

Photo:  http://ylandtsig.ning.com/profile/EmmaHeyderman

I have never been in the live audience at her seminars, but she has been part of my audiences at seminars, and I hold a lot of respect for her and her publications.

As so often happens these days, I was looking up something else (well, actually - I think I was preparing the previous post for this blog come to think of it!), when I came across a selection of videos featuring Emma on the Cambridge University Press ELT Youtube channel.

Take for example this one:
Preparing teenagers for the PET exam: Listening.

Emma demonstrates just how important it is for students to listen carefully to the whole of the listening texts and not to choose an answer too quickly.

As well as this video, you can find other clips looking at the other skills tested on Cambridge English: Preliminary.

So now, running up to the main examining period of the year and for us Cambridge ESOL presenters, coming to the end of our live sessions for 2011-2012, watch Emma's tips to gain some advice and ideas for your candidates.

Education at a glance 2011

If, like me, you find statistics and figures fascinating, you will find this report will give you some useful information and food for thought:

www.oecd.org/dataoecd/61/2/48631582.pdf

Here’s the official description of the contents:

‘The 2011 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators enables countries to see themselves in the light of other countries’ performance. It provides a broad array of comparable indicators on education systems and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally.

The indicators show who participates in education, how much is spent on it, and how education systems operate. They also illustrate a wide range of educational outcomes, comparing, for example, student performance in key subjects and the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment.’

Chapter A6 looks very interesting.  It examines the issue of whether students who enjoy reading are better readers.  It looks at reading habits in countries around the world and specifically at what students read for enjoyment (eg fiction, comic books, newspapers, magazines, at how much time they spend reading for enjoyment, and at how these factors relate to their performance on PISA reading proficiency tests.

I think it will make interesting reading and I will certainly be looking at the results for Spain, the country where I teach!