Abstract:

With the goal of promoting quality in adult language learning and teaching, the ISQALE (Improving Standards of Quality in Adult Language Education) partnership project, funded by the EU lifelong learning – Grundtvig programme, has designed a Quality Assurance scheme. Drawing inspiration from the aims of the European Association for Quality Language Services (EAQUALS), the ISQALE scheme proposes a set of indicators in four areas: the management of language institutions and programmes, the academic coordination of teaching, the process of teaching and the process of learning. This presentation reports on the collaborative work of the partners, language institutions from five different European countries, on the design, piloting and implementation stages of the scheme, of its indicators and accompanying questionnaires. The final project outcomes will also be presented together with a discussion of the main results of the project, which have shown the effectiveness of the Scheme as a Quality Assurance instrument in all partner institutions which can be flexibly used to integrate internal and external assessment, for the purpose of ensuring on-going quality assurance.