The EALTA UKALTA ‘Roadmap’ conference—The CEFR: a road map for future research and development—meeting overview.

Abstract

In the two decades since its publication, the CEFR has established itself as an indispensable reference point for all aspects of second and foreign language education—a position that was reinforced by the publication of the Companion Volume (CV) in 2018. Used worldwide by individuals, institutions and policy makers in different contexts, with different aims and with varying degrees of rigor, the CEFR has become de facto an open source apparatus that is a great deal more than a collection of documents. EALTA (European Association for Language Testing and Assessment) and UKALTA (United Kingdom Association for Language Testing and Assessment), both open associations of professionals in language testing and assessment, recognize the need to explore ways of developing research methodologies and projects of various kinds that can help to extend and further develop the CEFR and its implementation. Accordingly, they have decided to organize a meeting that will consider the possibility of creating a road map for future engagement with the CEFR, taking account of what has been learnt so far and of new developments in applied linguistics and related disciplines. The meeting will comprise a series of symposia and discussion panels in which invited professionals from different contexts will report on and discuss existing policies and research and express their views on future development.