The Common European Framework and the European Language Portfolio: involving learners and their judgements in the assessment process

Abstract

Learner-centred approaches to language teaching, especially those that seek to develop learner autonomy, require the learner to take decisions concerning the goals, content and methods of learning; they also assign a central role to self-assessment. Although the logic of learner-centredness demands that learner self-assessment should somehow be integrated with other forms of assessment, to date this has been only a minority concern, usually in relation to one or another form of portfolio learning. The recent publication of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the increasingly widespread adoption of its companion piece, the European Language Portfolio (ELP), renew the challenge to develop a culture of assessment that both facilitates and takes full account of learner self-assessment. This article begins by briefly considering the importance and limitations of self-assessment in second language (L2) learning. It goes on to address issues of principle raised in turn by the CEFR and the ELP, and then reports on a project that:• has drawn on the CEFR to define an ESL curriculum for non-English-speaking pupils attending Irish primary schools;• has developed a version of the ELP as the foundation of teaching and learning; and• is currently elaborating assessment and reporting procedures in which learner self-assessment plays a central role.