eunbil · GT0N1255 · 2006-05-12 00:00:00 — THE EUROPEAN UNION , STATIS 29 INTRODUCTORY NOTE from : General of the Council to : (Part 1) No. : 7256/06 EDUC 54 STATIS 25 No. : 11704/05 EDUC 123 STATIS 75 - COM(2005) 356 final Subject : Communication from the Commission to Parliament and the Council: Indicator of Language Competence Council Conclusions 1. On 19 2005, in response to a request by Heads of State and Government at the 2002 and an invitation by education ministers in 2005 , the Commission forwarded to Parliament and to the Council a Communication on Indicator of Language Competence (EILC) which outlined an approach towards the of a means of measuring overall foreign language competencies in each , as well as providing Member States with hard data on which any necessary adjustments in their approach to foreign language teaching and learning could be based. In January 2006 the Council"s began examining a set of draft Council conclusions on the EILC drawn up by the Presidency with a view to their adoption by education ministers at the forthcoming . Delegations will find attached the text of those conclusions as they emerged from the Committee"s most recent meeting on 28 and 29 2006. The extensive discussions held on the subject since January, together with a policy debate on the EILC during the , have enabled many major issues to be clarified and a considerable degree of consensus has now been reached on the text of the conclusions. However, one key issue remains to be settled: namely, the most suitable level at which testing should be carried out (see footnote 12 on page 6). The Presidency compromise proposal is to recommend that pupils should be tested at the end of ISCED level 2, but in the case of a small number of Member States where a second foreign language is not taught before the end of that level, to allow testing - in the first round of data-gathering - to be conducted at ISCED level 3 for the second foreign language. This compromise has the support of the majority of Member States and the Commission, but has given rise to reservations from four Member States, three of which (BE, HU and IT) are calling for the testing of both the first and the second foreign languages at ISCED level 3 (see footnote 12 on page 6), while the fourth (SE) feels that the Presidency compromise has already gone far enough and that any more flexibility will undermine the comparability of the test results. is therefore invited to address this outstanding issue with a view to enabling the Council to adopt the text of the draft conclusions. on Indicator of Language Competence having regard to: the strategic goal set for Union by 2000 and reaffirmed by and 24 2001, "to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth, with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion"; the mandate from the to the "to undertake a general reflection on concrete future objectives of education systems, focusing on common concerns and priorities while respecting national diversity ." the Council Resolution of 14 February 2002 on the promotion of linguistic diversity and language learning which emphasised, amongst other things, that: "the knowledge of languages is one of the basic skills which each citizen needs to acquire in order to take part effectively in knowledge society and therefore facilitates both integration into society and social cohesion"; and that "all European languages are equal in value and dignity from the cultural point of view and form an integral part of European culture and civilisation", and which invited the Member States "to set up systems of validation of competence in language knowledge based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages developed by "; the European Council Conclusions of 15-16 2002 , which endorsed the detailed work programme on the follow-up of the objectives of education and training systems , called for further action to improve the mastery of basic skills, in particular by teaching at least two foreign languages from a very early age; and called for the of a linguistic competence indicator in 2003; the Council conclusions on new indicators in the fields of education and training of 2005 the Communication from the Commission to Parliament and the Council entitled "Indicator of Language Competence" ; the draft recommendation of Parliament and of competences for lifelong learning , which defines communication in a foreign language as a key competence; the Communication from the Commission to the Council, Parliament, Economic and and entitled «A New Framework Strategy for Multilingualism» , foreign language skills, as well as helping to mutual understanding between peoples, are a prerequisite for a mobile workforce and contribute to the competitivity of Union economy; periodic monitoring of performance through the use of indicators and benchmarks is an essential part of the process, allowing good practice to be identified with a view to providing strategic guidance and steering for both short and long term measures of the "Education and Training 2010" work programme; measures are needed to remedy the current absence of reliable comparative data on the outcomes of foreign language teaching and learning; such measures must be based upon the gathering of data through objective tests of language skills, developed and administered in such a way as to ensure the reliability, accuracy and validity of those data; such data have the potential to help identify and share good practice in language education policies and language teaching methods through an enhanced exchange of information and experience; Member States need a clearer picture of the practical and financial arrangements they will each need to make in order to implement Indicator of Language Competence; the development of the Indicator should fully respect the responsibility of Member States for the organisation of their education systems and should not impose undue administrative or financial burdens on the organisation and institutions concerned; the method for data-gathering should take account of previous work in the field at international, Union and level, and be devised and implemented in a cost-effective ; Indicator of Language Competence shall be put in place as soon as possible, in accordance with the following terms of reference: data should be gathered on competences in first and second foreign languages: via a common suite of tests administered to a representative sample of the target population in each Member State; from a representative sample of pupils in education and training at the end of ISCED level 2; 12 where a second foreign language is not taught before the end of ISCED 2, Member States may, in the first round of data-gathering, choose to data for the second foreign language from pupils at the level of ISCED 3; for those languages for which there exists a suitable representative sample of learners in a given Member State; test scores should be based on the scales of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages ; because respect for linguistic diversity is a core value of Union, the Indicator should be based upon data concerning the knowledge of all the official languages of Union taught as foreign languages in the Union; but for practical reasons it would be advisable, in the first round of data-gathering, for tests to be made available in those official languages of Union that are most widely taught in the Member States, to the extent that they provide a sufficiently large sample of testees ; Member States shall themselves determine which of those official languages are to be tested; the Indicator should assess competence in the four productive and receptive skills; but for practical reasons it would be advisable, in the first round of data-gathering, for tests to be made available in the three language skills which may be assessed most readily (i.e. listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing); the testing methodology should be made available to those Member States who wish to use it for their own development of tests in other languages; appropriate contextual information to help assess underlying factors should also be gathered; INVITES the Commission to: set up, at the earliest opportunity, an Advisory Board composed of a representative of each and one representative of (the "") whose mandate shall be to advise the Commission on technical matters, such as: the specification of the tender for the creation of the testing instruments; the assessment of the work of the contractor; the appropriate arrangements, standards and technical protocols for data-gathering activities in the Member States; in order to assist Member States to define the organisational and resource implications for them, give this Board the initial task of bringing forward a timetable for the work and a more detailed description of the construction and administration of the tests, including: preferred testing method, and preferred arrangements for administering the tests, taking the possibilities of e-testing into account; the minimum sample size that should determine whether a test for a particular language shall be made available to Member States; report back in writing to the Council by the end of 2006 on the progress of work and, if appropriate, on any issues outstanding; INVITES Member States to: take all necessary steps to carry forward the process of establishing the EILC. Council Conclusions of 24 2005 on new indicators in education and training, OJ C 141, 10.6.2005, p.7. See "s draft report (rapporteur: ) on measures to promote multilingualism and language learning in Union: European Indicator of Language Competence (PE 369.872v01-00 and PE 370.196v01.00). ISCED = International Standard Classification of Education, which is based on a series of levels and widely used as an instrument for gathering comparable indicators and statistics of education between different countries. Level 2 corresponds to lower secondary education, level 3 to upper secondary. Bold is used to indicate the most recent changes to the previous version (in doc. 7256/06). SN 100/1/00 REV 1, paragraph 27. OJ C 50, 23.2.2002, p.1. SN 100/1/02 REV 1. adopted by 2002 (OJ C 142, , p.1). OJ C 141, 10.6.2005, p.7. doc. 11704/05 - COM (2005) 356 final doc. 13425/05 - COM (2005) 548 final doc. 14908/05 - COM (2005) 596 final BE, HU, IT: reservations on the issue of the level at which testing should be carried out. They suggest testing both the first and second foreign languages at ISCED 3. Since ISCED level 2 ends earlier in , HU suggests adding at the end of the sentence: ".or at the end of grade 9 in countries where ISCED level 2 ends after 8 years of schooling." SE: scrutiny reservation. Finds the compromise already too far-reaching, since more flexibility on the levels will make it difficult to draw valid comparisons. "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment", as developed by . See webpage at: $t/208-1-0-1/main_pages/./documents_intro/common_framework.html 8300/06 GN/ag DG I LIMITEEN 8300/06 GN/ag DG I LIMITE EN