Cambridge ESOL exams and the CEFR
The historical perspective
The origins of the CEFR date back to the early 1970s when the Council of Europe sponsored work within its Modern Languages Project to develop the Waystage and Threshold levels as sets of specified learning objectives for language teaching purposes. Waystage and Threshold were both relatively low proficiency levels designed to reflect achievable and meaningful levels of functional language competence. They were also to form part of a European unit/credit system for adult language learning. In 1977 David Wilkins (author of The Functional Approach) first proposed the concept of a set of ‘Council of Europe levels’, which could provide an explicit pathway for language teaching and learning with opportunities to accredit achievement outcomes along the way.
The Cambridge exams, starting with CPE in 1913, followed by LCE (later FCE) in 1939, and then PET in 1980, were all designed to offer learners and teachers useful curriculum and examination levels. In the late 1980s Cambridge was one of several stakeholder organisations to provide funding and professional support for revising Threshold and Waystage (Van Ek and Trim 1998a, 1998b); these revised level descriptions underpinned test specifications for a revised PET exam in the mid 1980s and a new KET exam in the early 1990s. In 1991 the new CAE exam helped bridge the gap between FCE and CPE. By the early 1990s, therefore, the Cambridge exams (KET, PET, FCE, CAE and CPE – sometimes referred to as the ‘Main Suite’) were providing well-established and recognised accreditation ‘stepping stones’ along the language teaching/learning pathway.
The concept of a ‘framework’ of reference levels for English language learning, teaching and assessment was beginning to take on a more concrete form and the scene was set for the Council of Europe’s Common European Framework Project.
Further information
References:
Van Ek, J A and Trim, J L M (1998a) Threshold 1990, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
—(1998b) Waystage 1990, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
