General

The E - KU Institute of Language and Intercultural Communication in Nitra is an accredited test centre for the ECL Examinations.

Competence, Languages

The professional responsibility of the "ECL" language tests - ECL stands for "European Consortium for the Certificate of Attainment in Modern Languages" - was taken up by a prestigious university in the home country of each language that constructs the tests and evaluates the papers. On the basis of the uniform criteria established in the first phase of standardisation, ECL exams can at present be taken in English, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Serbian, Rumunian, Slovak and Spanish. Tests are being developed for all the other official languages of the EU according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Features of the Test

The content and overall validity of the tests have been established after extensive research by specialists and pilot tests on specific target groups. The ECL exams test oral and written ability to use the language of everyday discourse on practical, professional and personal topics at varying degrees of complexity.

Evaluation

For each of the skills the maximum score is 25. Altogether 100 points can be obtained for the ECL language tests. The candidate is successful when he/she achieves an average of at least 60 % in each skill and overall.

Tasks of the Test

The oral test takes place in front of a two-member board: the two candidates have a guided conversation about given topics followed by their own description and speech about a given picture or series of pictures. The testing of the other three skills is in writing with the help of a cassette player and test papers.

The candidate is given two tasks for each of the four language skills, so he/she can prove throughout eight different topics that his or her knowledge corresponds to the requirements of the level that he/she has chosen. This way there is no need to worry that a lack of knowledge of the vocabulary of a certain topic will determine his or her success at the exam.

Comparability

Comparability is one of the important characteristics of the ECL tests. To ensure this, examinations as well as test materials and certificates are built on uniform principles. According to these uniform principles the parameters and criteria of evaluation and the types of tasks are the same in each language.

Reliability

Each specialist member of the Consortium is responsible for test construction and marking in their own language. To ensure maximum reliability for the ECL tests, all items are pre-tested, test constructors and markers are trained before each session, and a system of double marking is used . A committee of specialists from each of the languages being examined monitors the standards of question-setting, marking and awarding to ensure equivalence between levels of achievement across the languages.