Understanding ESOL Skills for Life qualifications
The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of how effective our current regulatory requirements are for ESOL Skills for Life qualifications.
Applies to England
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This study focuses on ESOL Skills for Life (SfL) qualifications. These were developed as part of a suite of basic skills qualifications to help migrants resident in this country to integrate better with English-speaking communities and to access education and employment, helping them to fulfil their potential.
The SfL qualifications operate in a challenging context of language assessment for migration and integration. The challenge is the sheer variety of the experience of the target cohort for these qualifications in terms of literacy levels, language and educational backgrounds, life histories including trauma and other vulnerabilities, aspirations and needs within the UK society. This often calls for flexibility in delivery and assessment approaches. On the other hand, employers, education providers and other users may rely on the results of these qualifications and will need to know there is sufficient comparability between different awarding organisations (AOs).
The purpose of this research was to gain an understanding of how effective our current regulatory requirements are for these qualifications in making sure they function as intended in relation to their purposes and to inform decisions on our requirements in future. We explored and evaluated a sample of SfL qualifications in terms of their design and assessment properties, alignment with the core curriculum, inter-AO comparability and validity. Specifically, we wanted to develop a clearer understanding of:
- assessment models of SfL qualifications
- how AOs approach the development and delivery of SfL qualifications given their understanding of the cohort needs, qualification purposes and the curriculum
- how different SfL qualifications align with the core curriculum
- how different SfL qualifications align with each other as well as with the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) in terms of assessment and performance standards
The research involved a sample of 4 AOs across all 4 studies, with 2 additional AOs included in interviews, and focused on a subset of qualification levels. The research was conducted in several strands:
- Study 1: Assessment review (focus on Entry 1 and Entry 3)
- Study 2: Interviews with key members of AO staff
- Study 3: Curriculum alignment review (focus on Entry 1, Entry 3 and Level 1)
- Study 4: Comparability study involving content mapping and linking of pass grade standards to the CEFR (focus on Entry 1, Entry 3 and Level 1)
This report brings together the findings from our 4 studies and suggest some potential areas for improvement.