A Systematic Literature Review of Current Studies on Comparison Between the CEFR and CSE

Abstract

The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is widely used in the area of learners’ proficiency assessments, curriculum design and learning material development all around the world. To better facilitate the language teaching, learning and assessment, the Ministry of Education in the People’s Republic of China launched the development of China’s Standards of English Language Ability (CSE) in 2014. Then, in 2018, a unified English language ability framework, the CSE was developed. This study aims to examine the differences of current studies on the CEFR and CSE in terms of alignment, target audience and language, application on education, and the most frequently used methodologies. The method used is the systematic literature review (SLR). Through this method, ten articles were obtained from different databases. Based on the analysis, the findings are as follows. First, the majority of studies were in terms of the alignment between the two frameworks from the perspective of listening, reading, writing and other skills. The second largest number of studies on the comparison of the two frameworks focused on the general comparison between them. Additionally, there was only one study related to the application of CEFR and CSE in education. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that most of current studies on the comparison between the CEFR and CSE centre on the alignment and general comparison, few studies were conducted to compare the descriptors of the four English language skills. Hence, future studies should focus more on the comparison of listening, speaking, reading and writing descriptors.