NDLR Modern Languages’ Community of Practice

Colleagues, Lewis Purser of the Irish Universities Association (email: lewis.purser@iua.ie) has asked if members of the NDLR Modern Languages’ Community of Practice would be interesed/able to provide feedback and comment on a National Qualifications Authority of Ireland paper which aims to provide an analysis of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) – and the emergent European Qualifications Framework (EQF) – comparing and contrasting them and identifying where and how it is feasible to develop a correspondence between them.

The paper concludes that it is both possible and desirable to set out how these two frameworks correspond. Further, it can be demonstrated that CEFR, NFQ and EQF, while all different and designed for different purposes, are nevertheless compatible and able to function together as a suite:

• EQF at the meta, European level, as a translator between systems
• NFQ at the national level, a means of defining and comparing qualifications
• CEFR at the subject or field level, as a means of improving teaching and learning of languages and describing individual attainment of language skills.

Developing an understanding of how the frameworks align and correspond is an essential step in developing an overall environment in which they can function together. The work reported on in this paper is presented as a first step towards the establishment of the relationships between the frameworks.

The paper is available to view by clicking here. Please email any feedback comments to Lewis Purser (email: lewis.purser@iua.ie).