European Language Portfolio

1. Taking into account my personal teaching context. What would be the advantages and disadvantages of using the ELP with my groups?

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) was developed by the Language Policy Unit of the Council of Europe to support the development of learner autonomy, plurilingualism and intercultural awareness and competence; and to allow users to record their language learning achievements and their experience of learning and using languages.

The European Language Portfolio accompanies language learners throughout their school education and beyond. The ELP is an instrument to help promote multilingualism. As such, it makes a valuable contribution to the coordination of language teaching and language learning in Europe. European Language Portfolio has three components: language passport, language biography, language dossier.

I’m not currently teaching now, but I think that, depending on the group of students, ELP can be a good idea or not, for example, if a student is not sincere, he/she can be deceived, it is true that he/she is fooling himself/herself.

On the other hand, I like it because it is a tool, a type of training, to assess yourself and you can know where you err. I reckon that ELP can be a motivator tool for students to learn, and sometimes, they can be embarrassed by their mistakes. Sometimes, students want to assess themselves to find their own level, as students often feel unsafe.

Other advantages are: it helps both learner and teacher in the improvement of the different language skills because it describes levels of proficiency to measure learners’ progress; it is a methodology in which, the pupil participates actively in the learning process.

I was talking to my partners and someone says that it is important not to exaggerate the value of using the portfolio. It is only a support tool, but it requires the interest and active participation of students. If you do not use it, the result will be worthless.