Yes I'm not quite sure how the expectation that ESOL International qualifications should align with the UK-specific (or more precisely England-specific) Adult ESOL Core Curriculum crept in. This was also mooted as part of the recent Ofqual consultation on ESOL qualifications, and I know we fed back fairly forcefully that it wasn't appropriate.
As I indicated before, the levelling within the Adult Literacy standards (on which the ESOL Core Curriculum and ESOL SfL qualifications are based) is intended to reflect the literacy capabilities expected of native English speakers (although I'm very conscious it would be easy to spend all afternoon debating what that actually means...). The thinking was that there should be parity of standard between literacy and language qualifications - although given the assessment requirements that subsquently emerged for Adult Literacy and ESOL Skills for Life, most would in practice regard the latter as more challenging.
This perhaps serves to illustrate why comparing CEFR with NQF levels isn't always helpful - eg think of the difference between A*-C GCSE in English and A*-C GCSE in a MFL; both are Level 2 in terms of the NQF.
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