Newsroom
Multilingualism policy speaks volumes at European Parliament
15 October 2008
To celebrate the contribution language assessment can make to encouraging the learning and use of languages, Cambridge ESOL ran an event on the theme in Brussels. “Supporting multilingualism through language assessment” was held on 7 October 2008 at the European Parliament. This event was hosted by The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and MEP Hannu Takkula who is the Vice Chair on the Culture and Education Committee.
A packed receptionwasattended by MEPs, media and other parties interested in a multilingual policy. Leonard Orban, EU Commissioner for Multilingualism spoke of the importance of multilingualism in Europe in his opening speech and underlined the value of clearly described levels of achievement.
Nick Saville, Director of Research and Validation, Cambridge ESOL welcomed the event:
“It is gratifying to see the level of interest in multilingualism within the Commission and the European Parliament, and that the role of assessment in this area is so clearly understood. We invest a great deal of expertise to develop high quality language tests and research findings which are a key contribution to common assessment standards throughout Europe.”
During the week, around 100 people took a computer-based version of BULATS in English, French, German and Spanish. This enabled them to learn which level their business language abilities were inline with common European standards.
