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Peter Lenz

Associated researcher


peter.lenz@unifr.ch

Research interests

  • Development of instruments for assessment and testing of communicative language proficiency (quantitative methods in particular)
  • School- and course-based foreign language learning

Peter Lenz was president of EALTA (European Association for Language Testing and Assessment) from 2019 to 2023

Research projects (direction)

Title

Verification of the attainment of the Basic Competences in foreign languages at the end of compulsory schooling (ÜGK/COFO 2020)

Duration

01.2018 - 09.2024

The Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) planned to verify how well students are mastering the Basic Competences (educational standards) in foreign languages for the second time in spring 2020. Due to the covid-19 pandemic,...

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Title

Literacy development for adult migrants: literature review

Duration

01.2018 - 12.2023

Literacy courses designed for adult migrants have been offered for decades in countries experiencing significant immigration. The recent past has seen an increase in research on the teaching and learning processes that are involved in successful...

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Title

Innovative forms of assessment

In-depth study on competence-based assessment of receptive skills

Duration

01.2016 - 12.2019

If the aim is to measure how well learners can actually use a foreign language, then competence-oriented testing with near-authentic tasks is the method of choice. There is, however, a need for renewal in the design of such test tasks, especially...

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Title

Verification of the attainment of the basic competences 2017 (ÜGK 2017) in the first language at the end of primary school: task development

Duration

04.2015 - 06.2018

Commissioned by:  Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education (EDK) In the spring of 2017, the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education conducted the first ever largescale assessment to measure how well students have acquired...

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Title

Task Lab: studies for a better understanding and higher validity of communicative test tasks

Duration

01.2014 - 12.2016

In the spring of 2017, the CDIP/EDK assessed for the first time the basic skills in the first foreign language of schoolchildren at the end of primary school. On the basis of this assessment, the “Passepartout cantons” (the six cantons on...

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Title

Mapping developmental profiles in early language learning at school

Assessment tools as a link between education standards, curricula, teaching and learning

Duration

01.2012 - 12.2014

In collaboration with the University of Teacher Education St. Gallen (PHSG) and the Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera Italiana (SUPSI)  

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Title

The influence of foreign-language teaching methodologies on language learning in adult migrants in low-threshold language courses

Duration

01.2012 - 12.2014

There is little verified, i.e. empirically based knowledge about how second-language courses should be best designed to meet the specific needs of adult learners in low-threshold language courses. The aim of this project was to integrate...

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Title

HarmoS: Final revision of the national educational standards for foreign languages

Duration

12.2010

From 2006 to 2009, an official proposal for Swiss educational standards was formulated within the framework of the project HarmoS of the EDK. After concluding the political consultations, the standards required finalisation. To do so, the...

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Title

Framework curriculum to promote language skills of migrants

Duration

01.2009 - 07.2009

This project commissioned by the State Secretariat for Migration dealt with developing a framework curriculum to promote the language skills of migrants in Switzerland. Development goals for future projects were also defined. To order the...

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Research projects (collaboration)

Title

Testing language skills of future teachers

in the partner languages German and French

Duration

01.2008 - 12.2011

This project was realised within a DORE project of the University of Teacher Training Valais and examined the influence the bilingual study requirements have on future teachers’ ability to acquire professional skills. Valais students’ skills...

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Publications