Series | SAIL
Monograph | Rethinking English Language Certification
Chapter | The Shape of Certification to Come
The Shape of Certification to Come
This final chapter offers a reflection on possible future directions for English language certification. The major problem to solve (or to attempt to solve) seems to be not so much what to assess (fifteen years of ELF research have offered lots of insights into this) as how to do it. After discussing a series of problems related to rater rubrics, and the notion of error, we consider the format that future ‘ELF’ aware certification may take, concurring with Harding and MacNamara that an add-on ELF component currently seems the most practical way of incorporating an ELF element into mainstream certification. We conclude that the development of ELF certification is likely to be slow and painstaking, it may combine local and global elements, but in the long term it is inevitable, since the demand for valid and reliable certification of competences in the use of the world’s lingua franca is destined to grow, perhaps for many more years.
Submitted: Oct. 2, 2017 | Published: Nov. 6, 2017 | Language: en
Copyright © 2017 David Newbold. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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