Extract from consultation response

To what extent do you agree or disagree that the requirement for GCSE MFL assessments to use words that are not on the vocabulary list should be removed for all GCSE modern foreign languages on a permanent basis?
ASCL supports the proposal to remove the expectation that students understand and respond to abstract and unfamiliar material. This adjustment was made for 2022  and pupils and teachers benefited from this approach.

Do you have any comments about the proposal to remove the requirement for GCSE MFL assessments to use words that are not on the vocabulary list for all GCSE modern foreign languages on a permanent basis?
It is important that this change does not lead to an increase in the demand of the tasks. For this reason, we believe  that exam boards should still be able to include vocabulary covered in Key Stage 3 as part of the assessment (e.g. simple vocabulary and cognates/near cognates) which are not listed in the specification. This is because excluding such items from the assessments could lead to an undesirable   increase in the demand of the tasks. We also believe this will increase the flexibility for exam boards with their assessment design.

Assessments must be fair and accessible for all pupils and there is a need for parity across all language assessments.

Full response to consultation