The ComLaP project aims to provide insight into language proficiency, its components, and its relations with affective factors (such as motivation and attitudes). Understanding the nature of knowledge and proficiency can be useful to those involved in language education, such as teachers, policy-makers, and test-developers, when they develop, implement, and evaluate curricula, pedagogies, and curricula. 

In England, every year, approximately 260,000 16-year-olds take GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations in modern languages, mainly in French, German, and Spanish. Some evidence about knowledge and proficiency relevant to this educational context exists and is reviewed in our book 'Components of Language Proficiency: Adolescent Modern Language Learners in England' (due to be published in December 2026). However, most research has focused on learners of English in universities, with few studies investigating languages other than English in compulsory education. 

Our ComLaP study aims to begin to address some of these gaps by investigating language proficiency and its components among GCSE learners of French and Spanish who have experienced about 400-450 hours of instruction when they take their GCSEs. 

In the summers of 2022 and 2023, participants completed a series of tasks assessing (a) proficiency in listening, reading (including lexical inferencing), writing, and speaking, (b) different types of knowledge of grammar, vocabulary (including derivational morphology), and sound–symbol correspondences ('phonics'), and (c) affective factors, such as motivation, skill-specific self-efficacy, and attitudes towards language learning. 

We hope that the findings can contribute to our theoretical understanding of the nature of knowledge, proficiency, and relations between them and also inform policy and practice debates in a range of instructional settings— particularly those with low amounts of exposure to the language.

This website brings together (a) the test instruments used in the study; (b) the data and analysis scripts underpinning the findings presented in our book, 'Components of Language Proficiency: Adolescent modern language learners in England' (which will be published open access in December 2026); (c) the appendices for each part of the book; and (d) one-page summaries for the findings from chapters 4-11 in the book.

Please contact Dr. Amber Dudley (amber.dudley@york.ac.uk) and Prof. Emma Marsden (emma.marsden@education.ox.ac.uk) if you have any comments or questions about the website or the study. 

This project received funding from the Department for Education, England; the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account at the University of York; and the Department of Education at the University of York.