In the high-stakes accountability English educational system, decisions made by government and agencies about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment drive school planning and actions. This paper analyses the drivers for the recent change to French German and Spanish GCSEs and highlights particular areas of the new specification which may damage the…

The Polish school education system makes a distinction between two types of assessment: (1) Intra-school or internal assessment; and (2) External assessment. The idea of introducing external examinations into the Polish school education system emerged in 1992. This was directly inspired by study visits to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands…

The guide provides information on 28 public foreign language examinations offered by 14 organizations in the United Kingdom. The information is intended for use in selecting examinations for certifying language skills for employment purposes. Each listing notes the language exams offered, the aims of the test, levels of difficulty, intended age…

This resource guide is designed for teachers and others interested in fostering Spanish instruction in the schools of the United Kingdom, especially at the secondary level. The first of nine chapters looks at the status of and rationale for Spanish language instruction in the United Kingdom. The second chapter addresses topics in instructional…

A resource guide for teachers of Urdu, particularly in Britain, is designed to help them improve the conditions of Urdu instruction in a variety of ways, including pressing the local education authority for better educational provision, creating instructional materials, and making the best use of available equipment and techniques. The first of…

This resource guide, intended for current prospective teachers of Italian, is designed as a source of information and inspiration for Italian instructors at all educational levels. The first of the guide's 11 chapters provides a brief general introduction to this book. Chapter 2 looks at the status of and rationale for Italian language instruction…

This resource guide is intended for teachers of German and for administrators considering the introduction German language instruction in their schools or colleges in the United Kingdom. The first of 10 chapters looks at the status of German teaching in the British curriculum, primarily at the secondary level. Chapter 2 describes standardized test…