The multilingual society is now a reality for many countries around the world. This has, in turn, led to the growth of language teaching and assessment, and the imperative that such assessment is fair, accurate and supports the ambitions of both individuals and of the societies in which they live and work. This is crucial because multilingualism, although offering many benefits, can also cause tensions in both societal and political systems, and can threaten the survival of smaller languages, placing their speakers at a disadvantage – even in their own country.
Recognising the need for a coherent approach to language testing, ALTE was established in 1989 by the Universities of Cambridge and Salamanca. The initial aim was to establish common standards for language testing across Europe, thereby supporting multilingualism and helping preserve the rich linguistic heritage of Europe. It was also vital that individual test takers gained a language qualification that was a fair and accurate assessment of their linguistic ability, one which was recognised around the world, and which could be accurately compared to qualifications in other languages. ALTE now has 31 Members, including some of the world’s leading language assessment bodies, and over 40 Institutional Affiliates as well as several hundred individual affiliates.
For more information about the association, please visit the ALTE website.
CLIQ, Quality Italian Language Certification, is an association of four qualification boards of Italian as a second language: Roma Tre University, the University for Foreigners of Perugia, the University for Foreigners of Siena, and the Dante Alighieri Society. These are the only boards officially qualified to certify Italian as a second/foreign language by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The main aim of the association is to promote a culture for certificatory evaluation of Italian as a second language.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has given CLIQ the authority to coordinate and distribute certificates with the CLIQ quality logo.