The Council of Europe and Language Learning
The Council helps member states to implement new language programmes
and encourages innovation in language teaching and teacher training.
Activities are coordinated by the Modern
Languages Division, Strasbourg and the European
Centre for Modern Languages (ECML), Graz. One of the Council's
main achievements over the past two decades has been to develop
and promote a more practical and motivating approach to language
teaching, a learner-centred communicative approach, which is now
widely accepted right across Europe and beyond.
The European
Language Portfolio, a Council of Europe project, is being
developed as a passport type document in which language learners
of any age and at all levels can record their language competencies
as well as their learning and intercultural experiences.
It aims to assist and motivate learners in language learning
from primary school through adult life. It allows skills to be
recorded and reported in an internationally agreed manner and
facilitates educational and vocational mobility. A pilot scheme
on the feasibility and form of a European Language Portfolio is
in progress, involving fifteen countries and several international
NGOs in adult and higher education. The UK institutions are the
University of Aston, Department of Languages and European Studies
(Dr. Sue Wright S.M.Wright@aston.ac.uk)
and the University of Ulster at Coleraine, Northern Ireland, Language
Resource Unit (Mr. Michael Jones SO546@SPERRIN.ulst.ac.uk
). It is intended to launch the European Language Portfolio on
a European scale in 2001, during the European Year of Languages.
A Portfolio will consist of three parts: a passport recording
formal qualification in an internationally agreed manner; a language
biography describing language knowledge and learning experiences;
a dossier in which the learners' own work can be included. The
Portfolio will be updated as the owner's language learning progresses
and develops. It will assist mobility between countries by providing
comprehensive information to language trainers and employers about
the individual's language abilities. It will be an attractive
and prestigious document, bearing the logo of the Council of Europe.
The ECML supports networks and research projects for those who
are actively involved in developing language learning. Themes
currently being dealt with include teacher education, the use
of ICTs, cross-border co-operation in language learning, learner
autonomy, early language learning and textbook design. It has
28 member countries.
