First European Survey on Language Competences

Abstract

The European Survey on Language Competences (ESLC), the first survey of its kind, is designed to collect information about the foreign language proficiency of students in the last year of lower secondary education (ISCED2) or the second year of upper secondary education (ISCED3) (UNESCO 1997) in participating countries or country communities (referred to herein as educational systems). The intention was ‘not only to undertake a survey of language competences but a survey that should be able to provide information about language learning, teaching methods and curricula.” (European Commission 2007a). As the European Commission (2005) states, ‘it is important for Member States to be able to contextualise the data‘, and thus the language tests should ‘be complemented by questionnaires to teachers and pupils to gather contextual information’.