A group of experts from various stakeholders in post-primary education including the DES, the PDST, the NCCA, JCT, SEC, and a number of providers of MFL pedagogy on ITE programmes attended this workshop, which provided a training opportunity within the framework of a cooperation agreement between the European Centre for Modern Languages and the European Commission on Innovative Methodologies and Assessment in Language Learning.

In Europe most foreign language teaching and learning is benchmarked against the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for language proficiency. Having language qualifications benchmarked against the CEFR is seen as a way of increasing mobility opportunities across Europe, where CEFR levels are widely understood and used. This event allowed for the sharing of expertise, as well as ensuring that there is standardisation of work done across agencies of the Department of Education and Skills.

In Ireland, the introduction of the new Junior Cycle Student Award presents an excellent opportunity to rewrite foreign language courses with assessment linked to the CEFR. It is also timely in the context of plans by the Department to publish a strategy on Foreign Languages in Education later in the year. For more information on the strategy and to see submissions and relevant presentations click here

We will be looking at how we can best multiply the RELANG workshop in the next academic year.