The Linguist

The Linguist 56,2 – April/May 2017

The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology

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26 The Linguist Vol/56 No/2 2017 www.ciol.org.uk FEATURES university sector is growing, and there is already a high degree of familiarity and use within IWLP. At the same time, UNILANg works alongside the existing HE quality assurance procedure of external moderation. Essentially, this means that, for award- bearing courses, an examiner from one university scrutinises the examinations and the standard of students' work at another institution. In the UNILANg scheme, external examiners for language courses are expected to show that they are competent and experienced in mapping language proficiency levels to the CEFR. Where the learning outcomes of a particular course are validated by a UNILANg examiner, students who have completed this course successfully may receive a UNILANg certificate. This shows the CEFR level attained and a full descriptor of the relevant competence level. Certificates can only be awarded if a student can demonstrate, through an adequately rigorous assessment process, that they have attained the level of language proficiency corresponding to the relevant CEFR descriptors. Mere completion of a course will not automatically mean that a student is entitled to receive a certificate. The information presented on the certificate is designed to be understood by providers and institutions wherever CEFR is recognised. Beyond that, it explains to prospective employers the level of target- language competence attained. All certificates issued are recorded on a central database. Future developments A great deal has been achieved over the last two years. Following a year of successful trialling, the scheme has now been adopted by 11 universities. In addition, the number of examiners who have been approved for UNILANg validation work has reached 20, though this number should grow before the end of the year. At the moment, it is expected that most of the validation work will involve courses in French, german and Spanish, the three most commonly-taught western European languages. However, individual examiners for Italian and Mandarin Chinese have also recently been approved. going forward, it is expected that external examiners in Japanese, Portuguese and Russian will also be appointed. Next year, we plan to appoint another 20-30 examiners. To apply to become an approved and registered UNILANg assessor, an examiner needs to provide evidence, in the form of a supported statement, of at least five years' professional experience working with and applying the CEFR in their language. This is then submitted to the UNILANg Certification Committee for approval. one interesting question yet to be determined, and which current examiners have discussed, is whether students' language competencies should be described only as one overall CEFR grade, or whether competence in each of the four skills (speaking, writing, reading and listening) should be recorded on the certificate as a CEFR grade. There is much that remains to be done in terms of publicising UNILANg. The present priority is to obtain employer 'buy-in'. In the longer term, UNILANg also has much to offer specialist language teaching programmes in universities so that graduates' language competencies can be reliably described and mapped against the CEFR by experienced external assessors with attested expertise. For further details see www.unilang.website. Notes 1 In 2000, 105 UK universities offered language degrees; this had declined to 62 by 2013. Coleman, J (2013) 'Are Modern Languages Degrees on the Road to Extinction?' Talk given to the All-Party Parliamentary group on Modern Languages; www.ucml.ac.uk/languages-education/he-languages 2 UCML-AULC (forthcoming) 'UCML-AULC Survey of Institution-wide Language Provision in Universities in the UK (2016-2017)'; www.aulc.org 3 Council of Europe (2001) Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/source/ framework_en.pdf (Urls checked 10/3/17) For writers' biographies for all feature articles, see page 34. WORK TOGETHER University students (above) benefit from UNILANG certification, which uses the CEFR standards, recognised throughout Europe IMAgES © SHUTTERSToCK

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