Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

Part 1
Global benchmarks of communicative proficiency (pages 38 and 39)
The global benchmarks provide a general definition of proficiency in relation to:
LISTENING
READING
SPOKEN INTERACTION
SPOKEN PRODUCTION
WRITING
These benchmarks are not associated with any particular curriculum theme. They provide a useful means
of identifying and describing a pupil’s proficiency in English:
Before language support begins.
At any stage during language support.
At the end of language support.
For planning and delivering language support it is appropriate to use Part 2 in which the benchmarks
define curriculum-based language learning.
Global scales of underlying linguistic competence (page 40)
These benchmarks define what a pupil should be capable of doing in English in relation to:
VOCABULARY CONTROL
GRAMMATICAL ACCURACY
PHONOLOGICAL CONTROL
ORTHOGRAPHIC CONTROL (for pupils who are writing)
Section 3 The curriculum for language support
The English Language Proficiency Benchmarks
These benchmarks are important when testing a pupil’s proficiency and they provide the basis for the
English language tests for pupils receiving language support.
37