BATOD East conference presentation about access arrangements; July 2018

Here is the presentation delivered by Paul Simpson at the BATOD East conference which took place in Peterborough on 5th July 2018. During the presentation a number of questions were asked by delegates and were referred to Nick Lait of the JCQ. The questions and answers are here:

In the case of live voice presentation of the listening element of MFL are the students allowed as many repetitions as they need?

The JCQ regulations state that additional repetition is allowed, if necessary.  So yes within reason as many repetitions as required.

With regard to the extra time for live voice presentation does this mean that the whole period of the listening test is 25% longer rather than the individual parts of the assessment eg 5 seconds becomes 6.5 seconds!! Which seems impractical!

25% extra time would be applied to the published duration of the examination.  So if the examination was 90 minutes in duration this would be extended by 25%.

If a deaf student is very able at a language but does not speak or listen because of the deafness i.e. reading or writing only they cannot take the GCSE because exemptions would lead to 50% which is greater than 40%. There is no literacy only exam is there? I suppose they could do the reading and writing, get an exemption from the listening element, and do their best for the speaking part?

A GCSE Modern Foreign Language specification would consist of Reading, Writing, Listening and Speaking components.  Therefore, the candidate would have to do the Reading and Writing components, the centre seeking an exemption from the Listening component and then the candidate, as you say, doing their best in the Speaking component.  

In such a case or where the full exam is being undertaken what happens if the spoken language is not intelligible to an unfamiliar adult – can a video be sent rather an audio version only? Is a transcript allowed to help the examiner understand an unfamiliar candidate?

This matter would need to be discussed with the awarding body.  Sue and John may well be able to advise here from their experiences.  Personally though, I cannot see an awarding body accepting the submission of a transcript.

When referring to normal way of working does that mean normal working in the classroom or normal working in school exams eg mocks and assessments in class? Or both.

This very much depends on the particular needs of the candidate, the nature of their impairment and I suspect the resources available to the centre.  A candidate may rely on his/her peers within the classroom and then when sitting internal school tests and mock examinations the particular access arrangement is applied.  A candidate with a very substantial impairment would most probably have a Learning Support Assistant or Teaching Assistant allocated to him/her and then additionally the particular arrangement(s) applied in internal school tests and mock examinations.

To support an OLM one colleague remembered that in the past they had been able to use pictorial support as well as or instead of BSL, SSE and Cued Speech. I don’t remember such a thing. Do you?

I certainly cannot recall an OLM using pictorial support!!