Harmonizing Exam Levels with the CEF—ECL as a Case Study
Dr. Gábor Szabó

ECL has been a four-level, multilingual examination system for several years. When it was launched, the CEF did not yet exist in its current form; hence, exam levels were not originally connected to the CEF. With the CEF increasingly becoming an internationally acknowledged standard, it was felt that harmonizing ECL exam levels with the CEF would be desirable, indeed, a necessity sooner or later. The project launched by the Language Policy Division of the Council of Europe in order to generate case studies based on the application of the document entitled Relating Language Examinations to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment—commonly referred to as the Manual—provided an excellent opportunity to achieve the goal set forth. The presentation is to provide an insight into how ECL has so far participated in the project, including activities and results so far, evaluation of achievements, conclusions and plans for the future.