The Common European Framework in its political and educational context What is the Common European Framework?

Test criteria
Illustrative scales
Other categories
Range
General range
Vocabulary range
Accuracy
Grammatical accuracy
Vocabulary control
Socio-linguistic appropriacy
Delivery 
Fluency
Phonological control
Interaction
Turntaking strategies
Co-operating strategies
Example 4:
Swiss National Research Council: Assessment of Video Performances
Context: The illustrative descriptors were scaled in a research project in Switzerland as
explained in Appendix A. At the conclusion of the research project, teachers who had
participated were invited to a conference to present the results and to launch experimen-
tation in Switzerland with the European Language Portfolio. At the conference, two of
the subjects of discussion were (a) the need to relate continuous assessment and self-
assessment checklists to an overall framework, and (b) the ways in which the descriptors
scaled in the project could be exploited in different ways in assessment. As part of this
process of discussion, videos of some of the learners in the survey were rated onto the
assessment grid presented as Table 3 in Chapter 3. It presents a selection from the illus-
trative descriptors in a merged, edited form.
Test criteria
Illustrative scales
Other categories
Range
General range
Vocabulary range
Accuracy
Grammatical accuracy
Vocabulary control
Fluency
Fluency
Interaction
Global interaction 
Turntaking
Co-operating
Coherence
Coherence
Assessment
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Different systems with different learners in different contexts simplify, select and
combine features in different ways for different kinds of assessment. Indeed rather than
being too long, the list of 12 categories is probably unable to accommodate all the vari-
ants people choose, and would need to be expanded to be fully comprehensive. 
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
the way in which theoretical categories are simplified into operational approaches in their
system;
•
the extent to which the main factors used as assessment criteria in their system can be
situated in the set of categories introduced in Chapter 5 for which sample scales are
provided in the Appendix, given further local elaboration to take account of specific
domains of use.
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment
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