Context-sensitive assessment of modern languages in primary (elementary) and early secondary education: Scotland and the European experience

Abstract

Although much more limited in scope and intensity than second language (L2) immersion, MLPS (Modern Languages at Primary School; known elsewhere as FLES, Foreign Languages at Elementary School) is being extensively implemented across the European Union as a reflection of national and European Commission (EC) policies. Despite an increase of research interest in the area, issues of MLPS assessment have not been widely addressed. There are good reasons for developing such assessments:

• gauging the return on a massive public investment;

• feedback to parents and the public;

• informing national policy development;

• self-evaluation at the level of institutions, departments, teachers and learners.

There are, however, major problems at present in doing so across schools:

• variability of context;

• embeddedness of children’s language in a flow of events;

• their relative lack of cultural knowledge;

• unfamiliarity of teachers with concepts of L2 testing;

• lack of consensus concerning what MLPS proficiency might mean.

Examples are given from Scotland of how some of these problems were addressed in the pilot phase of the national MLPS initiative of the early to mid-1990s, leading to the development of more comprehensive and standardized assessments in the national Assessment of Achievement Programme (AAP) intended for the late 1990s and early years of the twenty-first century.