4.44 The role of oral language modifier (OLM) succeeded that of the oral communicator in 2007. The OLM arrangement was originally developed as a reasonable adjustment to support hearing impaired learners and learners with a below average reading comprehension. OLMs support candidates by helping them to understand 'carrier language'²⁹ that is used in examination papers. They are not permitted to modify ‘technical language’ – i.e. language that forms part of what is being assessed. OLMs are typically used in addition to written modifications to the examination papers made in advance of the examination. Modified papers have not always been appropriate for the needs of some candidates.

4.45 OLMs are currently allowed across all subjects. However, there are some concerns regarding the quality of the modifications they provide. For the majority of examinations for which they are requested, they are not actually used to modify language. Information from examination cover sheets submitted to the JCQ from the summer 2010 examination period shows that although OLMs were present in exams on 1482 occasions, on 1042 of these occasions OLMs were not required to modify language.³⁰ )

Table: Summer 2010 examinations

4.46 The cover sheets returned to JCQ included information about what modifications had been made. These included examples of incorrect modifications, either where technical language was modified or where carrier language was wrongly modified, for example:³²

• In a Religious Studies paper the word ‘contraception’ was modified even though this is a technical term rather than carrier language.
• In a Mathematics paper the instruction ‘measure one side’ was incorrectly modified to ’work out perimeter’ – again a modification of technical rather than carrier language, and in this case the modification made would have disadvantaged the learner.
• In one centre 'unique' was modified to ‘more than one’ on two separate occasions. In the same centre it had also been modified to mean ‘only one’.

4.47 There are concerns that not all examination papers are modified in advance to a high enough standard to allow for OLMs to be completely removed. It is worth noting that for National Curriculum Assessments, OLMs are not used, as National Curriculum examination papers are modified much earlier in the test development cycle allowing for a more thorough modification process.