The EMBED project aimed to standardize assessment of academic writing and speaking at the University of Groningen using the CEFR. The project team developed assessment procedures using CEFR descriptors and had samples assessed by local and external panels. There was overall agreement but some discrepancies. Results were shared to enhance transparency and bring CEFR-based assessment to higher education. Future work includes applying the approach to other skills and technologies, expanding to other languages, and involving students.

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The EMBED Project:
Integrating the CEFR in academic
writing and speaking
Sake Jager, Applied Linguistics / ICT in Education
Faculty of Arts
University of Groningen
(on behalf of the EMBED Project team)

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Overview
› Background
› CEFR in Faculty of Arts
› EMBED project
› Future developments

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Language teaching in Faculty of Arts
1. Departments of Language and Culture:
› Majors / Minors in language departments
› Minors in inter-/multi-disciplinary programmes (e.g.
International Relations and International
Organization, Communication and Information Sciences)
2. Language Centre:
› Language teaching other faculties (e.g. Law, Economics
and Business, Medicine)
› Staff training
› External provision (commercial, individuals, companies)

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CEFR in Faculty of Arts
› Proficiency outcomes at end of BA for all
language skills expressed according to CEFR
since 2001
› Teaching innovation project to integrate CEFR at
course level from 2006 to 2009
› Use of CEFR-related tools
› Dialang, (European) Language Portfolio, WebCEF, CEFCult)
› Pedagogical objectives
› Making students familiar with principles and levels of
framework
› Making them aware of own levels of proficiency
› Setting personal learning objectives

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EMBED Project: Using the CEFR for EAP
› Objectives:
 Standardization of assessment (consistency/transparency)
 Among teachers, across disciplines (International Relations and
Organizations, Law, English Language and Culture)
 Use of technology to support standardization
› Domain:
 Academic writing in English (essays/reports)
› Reference:
 Council of Europe Manual 2009
› Team:
 Kevin Haines, Petra Jansma, Wander Lowie, Estelle Meima, Nicole
Schmidt, Sake Jager

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Project procedures
› Meetings project team
 Screening of 120 Law essays for „flat‟ samples, later samples other
courses
 Selection of c. 10 samples for assessment by panels
 Regular meetings to discuss outcomes panel assessment
 Publications and other dissemination activities
› Assessment panels
 Local panel: 5 experienced English teacher/assessors
 Local consultant
 External panel: assessors at universities from our network of partner
universities in Belgium (Leuven), Finland (Helsinki) & Italy (Padua)

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Assessments procedures
› Familiarization (CEFTrain):
 Introductory activities with scales
 Training area (tasks and samples)
› Standardization (Blackboard):
 Use of procedures described in A Manual
 Delivery through project Blackboard site

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EMBED Project: Results
› Overall agreement among panelists, but some discrepancies
› Flat samples with same scores for Range, Coherence, Accuracy
and Argumentation are hard to find
› Challenges for assessment:
 Finding flat samples
 Multidimensional nature of proficiency
 Within-learner inconsistency (“instable system”)
 How to capture this variability in overall grade?
› Detailed discussion in following articles:
 Jansma, P.N., Jager, S., Lowie, W.M. & Haines K.B.J. (2011). De beoordeling van
Engelstalige essays: het ERK in het universitair schrijfvaardigheidsonderwijs.
Levende Talen Tijdschrift, 1, 15-25.
 Lowie, W.M., Haines, K.B.J. & Jansma, P.N. (2010). Embedding the CEFR in the
academic domain: Assessment of language tasks. Procedia Social and Behavioral
Sciences, 3, 152-161.

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EMBED Example (sample 6)
WRITING; RANGE (– applied to sample #6)
Has a sufficient range of language to be able to give clear descriptions,
express viewpoints on most general topics, using some complex sentence
B2
forms to do so. Language lacks, however, expressiveness and idiomaticity
and use of more complex forms is still stereotypic.
Has a good command of a broad range of language allowing him/her to select
a formulation to express him/herself clearly in an appropriate style on a wide
C1 range of general, academic, professional or leisure topics without having to
restrict what he/she wants to say. The flexibility in style and tone is somewhat
limited.

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Sample 6, fragment
According to the Declaration of the human rights, has every person
the right on these universal rights. This means that states should
protect people from abuses of the human rights. However, in many
states the government does not protect these rights; moreover, the
government violates the them. Even though almost every state has
signed the Universal Declaration. The discussion when there is a right
to intervene is difficult; however, the United Nations (UN) should
have the right to intervene in states which seriously abuses human
rights, not only because the purpose of the UN is to protect the
international security, but also because of the importance of the
human rights.

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Sample 6: Range
Sample 6 R C A Argument Overall
Internal B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
assessors
x5
Local B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
consultant
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 1
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 2
External B2 B1 B1 B2.2 B2
Italy
External B2 B2 B1 B2.1 B1
Belgium

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Sample 6: Accuracy
Sample 6 R C A Argument Overall
Internal B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
assessors
x5
Local B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
consultant
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 1
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 2
External B2 B1 B1 B2.2 B2
Italy
External B2 B2 B1 B2.1 B1
Belgium

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Sample 6: Argument
Sample 6 R C A Argument Overall
Internal B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
assessors
x5
Local B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
consultant
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 1
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 2
External B2 B1 B1 B2.2 B2
Italy
External B2 B2 B1 B2.1 B1
Belgium

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EMBED Project: Results
Sample 6 R C A Argument Overall
Internal B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
assessors
x5
Local B2.2 B2.2 B2.1 B2.2 B2
consultant
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 1
External B2 B2 B1 B2.2 B2
Finland 2
External B2 B1 B1 B2.2 B2
Italy
External B2 B2 B1 B2.1 B1
Belgium

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Dissemination
› Sharing and transparency are key aspects of
CEFR standardization
› Dutch CEFR site www.erk.nl set up to facilitate
access to information on and samples of CEFR
› EMBED results integrated (no HE samples on
this site previously)
› ERK website (sample 6)

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Evaluation
› EMBED useful for:
 Bringing out the multidimensional nature and
variability of language proficiency
 Enhancing transparency of assessment
 Producing localized samples for standardization
 Bringing CEFR-based assessment to the
university level (LC and Acad lang depts, across
disciplines)
 Establishing role of technology in this context
 Sharing experiences with others

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Future directions
› Application of EMBED procedures to oral production and
oral interaction tasks
› Online collaborative tasks (Skype, videoconferencing)
› WebCEF as assessment tool for panels
› Blackboard Interactive Rubrics
› Extension to other languages
› Finding more colleagues for external validation
› Incorporating student portfolios (Footprint)
› Setting up new projects in this area

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Thank you for your attention
On behalf of the Embed Project team:
Sake Jager
Petra Jansma
Estelle Meima
Nicole Schmidt
Kevin Haines
Wander Lowie