Exam board teams up with centre for excellence to develop new GCSEs in Modern Foreign Languages

Eduqas and The National Centre for Excellence for Language Pedagogy (NCELP) have worked collaboratively to support the reformed suite of GCSEs in French, German and Spanish.

Designed to be engaging and accessible for learners, the new GCSEs will feature word lists developed by experts at NCELP for use in Eduqas’ reformed exams and assessments.

Commenting on the new partnership, Kirsten Wilcock, Head of Languages at Eduqas, said:

“It has been a wonderful experience for Eduqas to work with NCELP’s vocabulary lists for our revised suite of Modern Foreign Languages (MFL) GCSEs, and to benefit from their development work with teachers and researchers.

‘In line with the requirements of the new Subject Content, and following our discussions with NCELP colleagues and with practitioners delivering our current GCSE specifications, we have streamlined content and assessment, making our reformed GCSE qualifications more accessible and engaging for learners. We have suggested broad themes to aid the teaching of vocabulary and grammar, and we will be releasing an interactive vocabulary resource for teachers to allow them to filter the lists by word class, tier, and broad themes.

‘We are excited by the fresh approach to teaching languages that this new suite of qualifications will offer, putting at the heart of the learner’s experience the core vocabulary needed to use language in a wide range of contexts, and building proficiency via a carefully sequenced, incremental, and engaging curriculum. We are delighted that NCELP’s free digital teaching materials will be widely available to substantially complement Eduqas’ provision of resources. Using the same word list means that the NCELP resources are fully aligned to support teachers in delivering Eduqas’ MFL GCSEs.”

Eduqas’ reformed GCSE qualifications will be submitted to Ofqual for accreditation for teaching from 2024, with first assessment in 2026.

In addition to the word lists, NCELP has created a package of additional resources which align with Eduqas’ reformed GCSEs including free and fully adaptable Schemes of Work for years 7 through to 11, KS3 classroom and homework materials, and resources for KS4 are in development. These resources will support students to prepare for the new assessment tasks, including read aloud, dictation, role play, and unprepared speaking activities. 

Also commenting on the partnership, Prof. Emma Marsden, Director at NCELP, said:

“Colleagues at NCELP are delighted that the word lists that Eduqas will use to create their new GCSE MFL exams are the word lists behind NCELP’s KS3 and KS4 resources! 

‘The language teams have really enjoyed working with Eduqas on finalising the lists, to help ensure that they are engaging and useful for students and teachers. 

‘The NCELP Schemes of Work, lesson powerpoints, homeworks, and language guides are all created using the NCELP word lists. 

‘This means that KS3 students who are already using NCELP resources can be confident that the language they are learning now is preparing them for a GCSE exam.”

To support teachers in the delivery of the reformed qualifications, Eduqas will publish guidance materials and will deliver a programme of free professional learning events. In addition, teachers can also benefit from free CPD from NCELP, introducing teachers to the rationale behind the new GCSE and the resources to support classroom and home learning.