The State Examination Center (SEC) has started a collaborative project "Support for the reforms in the core curriculum, textbooks and national assessments for the English Language" together with the Institute of Education of the Ministry of Education through the "English Language Specialist" program supported by the US Embassy in Azerbaijan.
Ongoing reforms in the language assessments - alignment of foreign language high stakes exams to the international standards require improvements in foreign language curriculum and instructions. To achieve the alignments, SEC has launched the project "Support for the reforms in the core curriculum, textbooks and national assessments for the English Language" with three phases, and the first phase is to be organized online with morning sessions of trainings during August 24-October 6.
The phases of the project have the following objectives, respectively:
- Phase I will cover review of the current English language curriculum and provide necessary recommendations, and consultancy on areas for improvement based on CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference);
- The purpose of Phase II (January 2021) is to conduct an intensive training and consultancy program on planning textbooks (to be reviewed by SEC, in consultation with the Ministry of Education) with communicative speaking and writing teaching and testing materials of each grade for teachers to use with their students;
- Phase III (March 2021) aims to develop training materials for the professional development of foreign language (English) teachers.
- Specialists on the foreign language (English) curriculum, textbooks, and assessment materials from the SEC, Ministry of Education, and Institute of Education have been involved in the online trainings, which would provide the participants with the following skills:
- Implementing CEFR (European Recommendation Framework for Language Teaching, Learning and Assessment) and international standards in the foreign language curricula design;
- Reviewing the curriculum, foreign language textbooks, and assessment materials based on international standards and CEFR.
The opening of the first stage and the consultancy session took place on August 24. The online meeting, organized by the SEC, was attended by the department heads and relevant specialists of the SEC and Institute of Education and the expert - Nathan Carr. During the meeting, the current challenges in the implementation of the foreign language curriculum, use of the textbooks were discussed; the project goals and future expectations were exchanged.
It should be stressed that the primary purpose of the project is to prepare a proposal for the alignment of the foreign language curriculum to the CEFR and draft a road map together with the Ministry of Education and improve the textbooks and assessment tools accordingly.
The project's trainer, Nathan Carr, is a professor of the California State University, and the expert of the project "Intensive Teacher Training and Consultancy" implemented by the SEC with the support of the US Embassy in Azerbaijan. Nathan Carr also contributed to the improvement of the SEC's undergraduate admission and Ph.D. exams.