Assessment literacy of national examination interviewers and raters – experience with the CEFR

Abstract

The article investigates the training needs for the English language national examination interviewers and raters in Estonia in light of the new national examination that is set to measure students’ proficiency at level B of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (henceforth CEFR) scale. A questionnaire study was designed to explore CEFR-related assessment literacy – the extent to which the target population employed the CEFR in their daily professional life, how accessible they felt the CEFR was for their professional needs and if they thought they could accurately place students on the CEFR levels. Additionally, the respondents assigned CEFR can do statements to the levels deemed appropriate. The results revealed ambiguity about the CEFR levels among the respondents, which lead the authors to propose a training sequence designed to empower the interviewers and raters to function more efficiently within the new national examination speaking test in Estonia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5128/ERYa10.01