Page 11 - ELG2503 March Issue 493

NEWS
Global Scale of English:

Supporting teachers for 10 Years

As the Global Scale of English celebrates its 10-year anniversary, Mike Mayor,
Senior Director for the GSE, reflects on its impact and considers how it can

continue to support our teaching efforts in the future.
A s ELT teachers, we’re always looking for would be easy for educators

ways to make learning more accessible
to use in their day-to-day
and engaging for our students.
teaching. The GSE Toolkit—
The Global Scale of English
(GSE), introduced by Pearson a decade ago, a free, online searchable
database—provides access
was developed by teachers for teachers and to all of the GSE’s learning
offers a framework and proficiency scale objectives, along with levelled
designed to enhance and support language databases for grammar and
learning, teaching, and assessment. vocabulary.
It’s designed to be user-
The origins and purpose of the GSE friendly and help teachers plan
The GSE was originally developed to address lessons, set goals, and develop
some of the limitations of the Common activities that align with their
European Framework of Reference for students’ needs. Whether
Languages (CEFR). you’re a seasoned teacher or
While the CEFR had been a vital tool for just starting out, the GSE offers
measuring language proficiency since 2001, practical support for lesson
it was starting to be used in contexts for which planning and assessment.
it had not been designed; for example in non-
European countries or with younger learners. Tracking progress and
Additionally, its broad proficiency levels keeping motivation high
(A1-C2) did not lend themselves easily to the We know that mastering a
measurement of learner progress on a regular language takes many years and
basis, with learners apparently plateauing one of the major challenges for teachers is
at the same CEFR level for many years. With keeping students motivated for the long haul. frameworks, keeping them relevant in a
the GSE, we saw an opportunity to extend Many learners feel discouraged when they rapidly changing educational landscape.
the CEFR and develop tools that would don’t feel like they are improving, and we need Recent developments include the
support teachers in their day-to-day teaching to provide tangible evidence of progress and integration of artificial intelligence (AI)
and assessment of English. celebrate success on a regular basis. The GSE into the GSE ecosystem, allowing for even
can support you in addressing this issue. more personalised learning experiences
GSE’s detailed learning objectives Many GSE Learning Objectives include for students.
What makes the GSE particularly useful for ‘scaffolding’; the support needed before a For EFL teachers, the Global Scale of
day-to-day teaching and progress monitoring is particular language function can be mastered English represents a valuable resource that
its emphasis on SMART (Specific, Measurable, independently. For example: ‘Can give simple goes beyond traditional language frameworks.
Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound) reasons to explain preferences, given a model.’ By offering a detailed, flexible, and practical
objectives. By having this type of learning objective, set of tools, the GSE helps teachers provide
In its introduction, the CEFR tells teachers we are able to celebrate success (mastery more effective teaching and better support
that they will have to adapt the ‘Can Do’ of the scaffolded learning objective) along for their students on the language learning
statements to their own particular context, the way to being able to do something journey.
including breaking them down into the independently. Whether you’re teaching young learners,
shorter-term objectives that serve as lesson- Using the numerical scale, we are also able adults, or professionals, the GSE equips you
level goals. The GSE Learning Objectives to show progress within a CEFR level, giving with the resources to make learning more
have done much of this work for teachers, learners an indication of where they are in, for measurable, motivating, and achievable.
providing ready-to-use lesson objectives that example, B1 and demonstrating that they are To find out more about the GSE, read the
have been validated by thousands of teachers steadily moving to B2. full report here.
around the world. GSE 44 (B1), GSE 47 (B1), GSE 50 (B1);
These shorter-term, measurable goals help without the GSE level, it would appear that
students and teachers track progress more this learner is at the same B1 level for each Mike Mayor is Senior
effectively and enable educators to keep assessment. They are not, but if your next Director, Global Scale of
learners motivated by acknowledging success point of reference is B2, how do you show English at Pearson. In this role,
on a more frequent basis. progress? Mike works with coursebook
and assessment teams to
Practical tools for teachers Final thoughts ensure that the Global Scale of
One of the key goals when developing the The GSE is far from a finished product. English underpins all products and services.
GSE was to create tools and resources that We continue to expand and innovate the
editorial@elgazette.com 11