Setting the Bar High Enough: Are European Standards for English Language Proficiency Appropriate?

• In Event: Conceptualizing and Assessing English as a Foreign Language: The European Perspective

Abstract

The establishment of accountability systems has been a major issue in European educational policy and research for the past decades. English language proficiency is considered a basic skill (Cha & Ham, 2008; Graddol, 2006) that non-native speakers all over Europe are expected to master. The relevance of English as a lingua franca in the ongoing process of globalization seems inadequately reflected upon in international discourse on educational outcomes. The dynamic model of school effectiveness includes educational policy as a central factor in shaping students’ outcomes (Creemers & Kyriakides, 2008). An empirical investigation of the (expected and actual) skills that students acquire in upper secondary education is necessary in order to provide a basis for enhancing the effectiveness and quality of EFL education in Europe.
Similar to many other European countries, educational policy in Germany has decided on standards for foreign languages at the end of upper secondary school (KMK, 2012). Students’ communicative competencies are expected to reach level B2 (Independent User; Vantage) of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). With respect to receptive skills (listening and reading) even higher proficiency levels are expected (CEFR level C; Proficient User). The question is, however, whether students really reach these expectations at the end of upper secondary school.
We thus carried out a large empirical study (LISA-Project; N = 3.639) with graduates at the end of grade 13 in secondary schools of the federal state Schleswig-Holstein. Based on their test results students from different profiles (language profile vs. other profiles), school types (traditional upper secondary school vs. vocational upper secondary school) and course levels (basic vs. advanced) were assigned to the different CEFR levels. Furthermore, we were interested in whether different forms of assessment moderated the assignment of students to CEFR levels. Findings show that the EFL proficiency levels reached by students differ for profiles, school types, and course levels: For receptive skills the proportion of students on level C1 vary between 4.3% (reading in the basic course level at vocational upper secondary schools) and 52.7% (listening in the language profile at the traditional upper secondary schools). The proportion of students assigned to a certain level also strongly depends on the assessment in use: the rank correlations between the CEFR levels resulting from two different EFL tests are rather weak (ρ = .63 for reading and ρ = .61 for listening. Based on these results we discuss the gap between real findings and ideal expectations defined by educational policy. Furthermore, we comment on the relevance of setting, monitoring, and communicating valid and appropriate educational standards for EFL in Europe.

Authors

• Johanna Fleckenstein, Pädagogische Hochschule FHNW

• Michael Leucht, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education (IPN)

• Olaf Koeller, Leibniz Institute for Science and Math Education