OECD © Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework 1

The first PISA assessment to assess students’

foreign language skills
How well do students in your country understand and speak foreign
languages? The OECD Foreign Language Assessment (FLA), a component of
the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), will provide the
answer. Starting in 2025, 15-year-old students will be tested in English as a
foreign language in reading, listening and speaking. The assessment will then
be repeated every six years to monitor trends, and progressively cover other
languages as well.
This brochure briefly sets out the framework for the assessment; please see the
PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework for more details.
Visit us at [Link] or contact us at
[Link]@[Link] if you’d like to know more or join us in the assessment.

Why test foreign language learning?

Governments around the world are investing significant resources in foreign
language teaching and learning. Policy makers, school leaders and educators
need to know if their efforts are paying off. Moreover, they need evidence on
effective policies and instructional methods for providing students with the
language skills they will need in their future.
In today’s global and connected world, proficiency in more than one language
is an essential tool to communicate and interact with others and a key asset
for employability. There are multiple benefits of learning foreign languages,
including:

INTERCULTURAL
ECONOMIC BENEFITS COGNITIVE BENEFITS
UNDERSTANDING

Foreign languages act as

Knowing one or more foreign Learning foreign languages
a bridge to other people,
languages is associated with increases cognitive abilities,
countries and cultures.
higher chances to access such as flexibility, problem
They help to promote
further education and better solving, abstract reasoning
respect for diversity and
jobs – at home and abroad. and creative thinking.
inclusiveness.

2 Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework OECD ©
Speaking multiple languages is associated with student attitudes
The latest evidence from PISA 2018 shows that speaking more than one
language is positively linked with intercultural understanding and global and
intercultural attitudes and dispositions. For example, students who reported
that they speak two or more languages showed greater respect for people
from other cultures than those who reported to only speak one language.
This association was positive and significant in all but five countries and
economies.

Figure 1. Speaking two or more languages and respect for people from
other cultures

Before accounting for socio-demographic profile

After accounting for socio-demographic profile

Dominican Republic Uruguay

Brazil United Arab Emirates
Korea Serbia
Singapore Kazakhstan
Costa Rica Iceland
Saudi Arabia Romania
Australia Slovenia
Bulgaria Jordan
Viet Nam France
Spain OECD average
Panama Bosnia and Herzegovina
Canada Macao (China)
Colombia Hungary
Baku (Azerbaijan) Portugal
New Zealand Croatia
Turkey Poland
Mexico Philippines
Albania Belarus
Argentina Chinese Taipei
Indonesia Ukraine
Ireland Montenegro
Kosovo Brunei Darussalam
Morocco Lithuania
Russia Greece
Peru Latvia
Malaysia Malta
Thailand Hong Kong (China)
Italy Germany
Moldova Austria
Chile Switzerland
Scotland (United Kingdom) Estonia
-0,1 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 -0,1 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6
Difference in mean index Difference in mean index

Notes: 1. The socio-demographic profile is measured by the PISA index of economic, social and cultural status (ESCS).
Statistically significant values are shown in a darker tone.
Countries and economies are ranked in ascending order of the difference in the index of respect for people from other cultures, after
accounting for gender, and students’ and schools’ socio-economic profile.
Source: OECD, PISA 2018 Database, Table VI.B1.4.12.

OECD © Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework 3
How did PISA design its framework to test
foreign language learning?
The PISA Foreign Language Assessment builds on other international
experience in assessing foreign languages, in particular:
• The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
(CEFR) descriptive scheme: The CEFR is a framework for describing
language proficiency that is used across the world. It identifies six
key levels of proficiency (from A1 to C2), which can be expanded to a
seventh pre A1 level, for a number of distinct language activities.
• A socio-cognitive model of language use: Weir’s 2005 socio-
cognitive model sees language use as an interplay of cognitive and
social factors. Its subsequent skill-specific models show how the
use of reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills vary along the
beginner-expert continuum (see “Further reading”).

PISA defines foreign language proficiency as the ability to use

a foreign language to communicate effectively
It requires a combination of communicative language competences and
general competences that allow the foreign language learner to perform
communicative language activities (reception, production, interaction and
mediation), which involve one or a combination of the following skills: reading,
listening, speaking or writing. It also requires the activation of appropriate
language strategies.

4 Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework OECD ©
What contributes to foreign language proficiency?
The PISA Foreign Language Assessment views foreign language proficiency as
the joint outcome of two combined sources of influence: learner factors and
task or activity factors. These, in turn, determine the cognitive processes that
the learner employs when using a foreign language. Learner and task factors
interact within a broad socio-cultural context (see Figure 2).

Figure 2. Factors that contribute to foreign language proficiency

Learner
factors

Broad socio-cultural context Cognitive Foreign language

processes proficiency

Task
factors

Source: OECD (2021), PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment and Analytical Framework, PISA, OECD Publishing, Paris.
Available at: [Link]

OECD © Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework 5
What will the PISA Foreign Language Assessment
assess?
The PISA Foreign Language Assessment will test 15-year-old students’ foreign
language reading comprehension, listening comprehension and spoken
production. Written production and more complex language activities that
require multiple skills may be included in future PISA assessments.

How will learner factors be addressed?

The students in the more than 80 countries and economies that participate
in PISA differ widely in their background knowledge, native language and
English language proficiency. The Foreign Language Assessment will build on
PISA’s experience with international assessments to enable fair and objective
comparisons of language proficiency across different school systems. To ensure
that the test is fair, PISA will:
• select texts that are appropriate to the age group and are not biased
against a particular gender or country
• use background questionnaires that allow for the investigation of some
of the learner factors expected to relate to proficiency (e.g. attitudes,
motivation, etc.)
• familiarise students with the test-navigation interface and the task types
before having them complete the test
• ensure that test instructions are accessible for all students, irrespective of
their language ability.

6 Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework OECD ©
How will task factors be addressed?

Variety of English

The PISA Foreign Language Assessment will take into account that students
around the world are learning different varieties of English. A neutral,
unmarked form of English will be used at lower proficiency levels. Texts at the
higher levels will typically be taken from authentic sources and may be marked
as British or American English.

Test forms

Reading and listening are adaptive, meaning that student’s performance in

initial sections of the test determines, in part, the final assignment of forms to
students.
Speaking is non-adaptive; it is the characteristics of the spoken output that
will determine the proficiency level.

Task focus

Each task will provide evidence about one or more “can-do” descriptors
included in the corresponding CEFR scale.

• Reading tasks: Texts for the reading assessment will be selected by

considering length, lexico-grammatical characteristics and other features
that affect the level of difficulty, as well as the genre, purpose and
contexts that reflect the typical progression for language learners in
school settings.

• Listening tasks: Auditory input for the listening assessment will be

selected by considering speech rate, number of speakers, functional
characteristics of the text, semantic characteristics (e.g. whether the
audio provides factual information or conveys opinions) and linguistic
characteristics.

• Speaking tasks: The speaking tasks will be carefully selected to ensure

that students at all levels being assessed can demonstrate their speaking
ability.

OECD © Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework 7
How will background factors be addressed?
The PISA Foreign Language Assessment will develop a set of questions
to be included in the PISA questionnaires for teachers, students, school
principals and parents, as well as a system-level questionnaire that
collects information on foreign language teaching and learning from
policy officials. The information gathered through the questionnaires
will be analysed together with the information on foreign language
proficiency collected through the tests to provide a comprehensive
picture of the factors that influence foreign language learning inside and
outside school.
The questionnaire framework was developed based on an in-depth review
of the scientific literature and past large-scale international assessments,
and on the input received from experts and policy makers. The framework
identifies four main policy domains, as illustrated in Figure 3. The use of
information and communication technology (ICT) and foreign languages
for instruction in other subjects is integrated into the discussion of these
four policy domains.

Figure 3. Framework for the PISA Foreign Language Assessment

background questionnaires

Policy domains Transversal topics

These topics are integrated
Government and Students and learning into the four policy domains
school policies
The general setting for The students’ background
foreign language learning and the environment they
at school (e.g. foreign live in (e.g. exposure to the
language teaching onset foreign language outside
and teaching time) and of school), their motivation
the school environment to learn the foreign Information and
(e.g. school resources language, and their use of communication
and activities). the language in different technology
contexts.

Teachers’ training and Teaching practices Use of the foreign

profile language for instruction
The teaching workforce What happens in the in other subjects
and the main policies in classroom: Teaching
place to train and approaches (e.g.
employ foreign language communicative language
teachers. teaching), individual versus
group learning and the use
of assessments and
evaluation.

8 Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework OECD ©
How will PISA report foreign language proficiency?
PISA reports students’ results through proficiency scales. For the PISA
2025 Foreign Language Assessment, each skill assessed (reading, listening
and speaking) will be reported on a separate six-point scale aligned with
the CEFR scales for related language activities. The use of these globally
recognised scales will facilitate easy and appropriate interpretation of PISA
results by educators and policy makers.
The CEFR level descriptors correspond to a progression in language
competence; for each level, a series of “can-do” statements indicate what
language learners whose competence falls within that level are typically
able to do, as can be seen in the example for reading in Table 1. The levels
covered in PISA 2025 will be from Pre-A1 to C1.

Table 1. The PISA scale for reading in a foreign language

Adapted for the PISA Foreign Language Assessment from the CEFR overall reading
comprehension scale

Can understand in detail lengthy, complex texts, whether or not they relate to
C1 and his/her own area of speciality, provided he/she can reread difficult sections.
above Can understand a wide variety of texts including literary writings, newspaper or
magazine articles, provided that there are opportunities for re-reading.

Can read with a large degree of independence, adapting style and speed of reading
to different texts and purposes, and using appropriate reference sources selectively.
B2 Has a broad active reading vocabulary, but may experience some difficulty with
low-frequency idioms.

Can read straightforward factual texts on subjects related to his/her field and
B1 interests with a satisfactory level of comprehension.

Can understand short, simple texts containing the highest-frequency vocabulary,

A2 including a proportion of shared international vocabulary items.

Can understand very short, simple texts a single phrase at a time, picking up familiar
A1 names, words and basic phrases and rereading as required.

Can recognise familiar words accompanied by pictures, such as a fast-food

Pre-A1 restaurant menu illustrated with photos or a picture book using familiar vocabulary.

Source : Adapted from Council of Europe (2020), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching,
assessment - Companion Volume, © Council of Europe, Strasbourg, p. 54.

OECD © Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework 9
10 Learning another language: The PISA 2025 Foreign Language Assessment Framework OECD ©
Further reading
• Field, J. (2011), “Cognitive validity”, in Taylor, L. (ed.), Examining Speaking: Research and Practice in Assessing Second Language
Speaking, UCLES/Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 65-111.

• Khalifa, H. and C. Weir (2009), Examining Reading: Research and Practice in Assessing Second Language Learning, UCLES/Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.

• Shaw, S. and C. Weir (2007), Examining Writing: Research and Practice in Assessing Second Language Writing, UCLES/Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.

• Taylor, L. and A. Geranpayeh (2013), Examining Listening: Research and Practice in Assessing Second Language Listening, UCLES/
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

• Weir, C. (2005), Language Testing and Validation: An Evidence-Based Approach, Palgrave McMillan, Hampshire.

• Council of Europe (2020), Common European Framework of Reference for Languages : Learning, teaching, assessment - Companion
volume, Council of Europe, Strasbourg,
[Link]
companion-volume.

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employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries.
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