Up and Away - National Council for Curriculum and Assessment

Section 3 The curriculum for language support
The English Language Proficiency Benchmarks
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! Points to remember!
Part 2
The lowest level in the Benchmarks is A1. For children entering school with no English language
proficiency, these descriptors represent the early learning targets.
The level at which a pupil can engage successfully with mainstream class learning is on completion
of the activities described in B1.
During language support it is most important that pupils develop all the language skills appropriate
to their age.
The first two themes, ‘Myself’ and ‘Our school’, support the pupil’s integration into the social and
educational activities of the school.
There are many interconnections between themes – see examples on page 107.
The descriptions in the Benchmarks all suggest classroom tasks or activities and should be used to
plan the language support programme.
The English Language Proficiency Benchmarks
are derived from the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages
(Council of Europe) which is a six-point scale
describing language proficiency, A1 – C2.
Only the first three levels of the Framework are
used for language support.
Level B1 is also known as Threshold Level. On
achieving proficiency at this level, a learner has
gained the necessary language skills and
knowledge to engage with activities in the
target language and to use existing language
knowledge to develop further skills and
proficiency.
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