Association of Language Schools of Serbia

REPORT on EAQUALS Workshop Meeting

held in Graz 12th – 14th November 2009, attended by Vesna Stakić

The event was held at the European Centre for Modern Languages in Graz.

The following special interest projects (SIPs) started in Budapest in November 2007 and further developed in Lisbon in November 2008, continued in parallel sessions:

Curriculum and Assessment, aim: to provide support in implementing a CEFR-orientated curriculum and in assessment of levels, in order to issue EAQUALS certificates;
CEFR for Companies, aim: to stimulate understanding of CEFR within companies and develop CEFR-business descriptors;
Framework for Teacher Training, aim: using the EAQUALS Professional Profiling Grid to generate a framework of descriptors (and possible accreditation citeria) for teacher training courses;
Self Assessment, aim: to develop a comprehensive school self-review pack in order to assist potential new members with attaining EAQUALS standards;
ISO-ToolKit, aim:to adapt EAQUALS quality requirements for ISO standards and provide templates and guidelines for ISO audits;
EAQUALS Core Glossary, aim: to create a more multilingual environment by establishing an English-German-French glossary of main words and expressions used in the EAQUALS inspection scheme.

The participants in the workshops chose one special interest project they would work on and I chose the Curriculum and Assessment SIP facilitated by Brian North. In order to be able to issue an EAQUALS Certificate of Acheivement EAQUALS will have to accredit a language institution's assessment system. A school will issue certificates based on continuous assessment of the students within a CEFR curriculum. To start with only accredited members will have the right to issues certificates but later the scheme will be extended to schools belonging to associate members. The scheme has been fully developed and will be operational from 1st January 2010.

A brief Extraordinary General Meeting was held where, two new associate members were accepted into EAQUALS: IPRASE del Trentino, Italy-Provincial Institute for Educational Research and the Association for Foreign Languages of the Croatian Chambre of Economy and the Consultants-E, Spain (training in the use of digital media in ELT) was accepted as project partner.