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The “Global Scale of English Learning Objectives for Young Learners”: A CEFR-Based Inventory of Descriptors

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Assessing Young Learners of English: Global and Local Perspectives

Part of the book series: Educational Linguistics ((EDUL,volume 25))

Abstract

This chapter presents an ongoing project to create the “Global Scale of English Learning Objectives for Young Learners” – CEFR-based functional descriptors ranging from below A1 to high B1 which are tailored to the linguistic and communicative needs of young learners aged 6–14. Building on the CEFR principles, a first set of 120 learning objectives was developed by drawing on a number of ELT sources such as ministry curricula and textbooks. The learning objectives were then assigned a level of difficulty in relation to the CEFR and the Global Scale of English and calibrated by a team of psychometricians using the Rasch model. The objectives were created and validated with the help of thousands of teachers, ELT authors, and language experts worldwide – with the aim to provide a framework to guide learning, teaching, and assessment practice at primary and lower-secondary levels.

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Correspondence to Veronica Benigno .

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Appendices

Appendices

1.1 Appendix A: Summary Statistics of Survey Answers by Selected Teachers (Tables 3, 4, and 5)

Table 3 Familiarity with CEFR descriptors
Table 4 Age groups taught
Table 5 First language

Appendix B: Summary Statistics of Survey Answers by Selected Expert Raters (Tables 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10)

Table 6 Teaching experience
Table 7 Country of teaching
Table 8 Age groups taught
Table 9 First language
Table 10 Teaching experience

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Benigno, V., de Jong, J. (2016). The “Global Scale of English Learning Objectives for Young Learners”: A CEFR-Based Inventory of Descriptors. In: Nikolov, M. (eds) Assessing Young Learners of English: Global and Local Perspectives. Educational Linguistics, vol 25. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22422-0_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22422-0_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-22421-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-22422-0

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