Waystage
A specification of language-learning objectives roughly equivalent to A2 on the CEFR, situated below The Threshold Level in the Council of Europe's Modern Languages Programme. The canonical reference is Waystage 1990 by J. A. van Ek and J. L. M. Trim, published by Cambridge University Press for the Council of Europe in 1991 (ISBN 978-0-521-56707-7).
Background
The Council of Europe commissioned the Threshold–Waystage–Vantage trio as functional-notional specifications for adult learners of English and other European languages. Waystage English — the original 1977 edition by van Ek with L. G. Alexander and Mary Alice Fitzpatrick — defined the level immediately below Threshold, intended as a practical "way station" for travellers and survival communication. The 1990 revision by van Ek and Trim aligned the specification with the updated Threshold Level 1990 and broadened its scope beyond tourism toward general elementary use.
Composition
The specification follows the same architecture as Threshold and Vantage: an inventory of language functions, general and specific notions, settings and topics, plus the lexical and grammatical exponents needed to realise them at this level. The book sets out what learners should be able to do — handle routine transactions, exchange basic personal information, manage simple social contact — and lists the minimal repertoire of forms required to do it. Pronunciation, sociocultural competence, and learning-to-learn strategies receive shorter treatment than in Threshold.
Use in ELT
Waystage 1990 fed directly into the empirical work that produced the CEFR in 2001 and remains a reference for elementary-syllabus design, low-level coursebook scoping, and exam specifications targeting A2. Cambridge English Key (KET, now A2 Key) and equivalent CEFR-A2 examinations draw their construct from this specification. The series also informed early CEFR-aligned vocabulary work that the English Profile programme later extended through corpus methods.
References
- van Ek, J. A., & Trim, J. L. M. (1991). Waystage 1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the Council of Europe.
- van Ek, J. A., Alexander, L. G., & Fitzpatrick, M. A. (1977). Waystage English. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
- Cambridge University Press catalogue: cambridge.org/core/books/waystage-1990