The CercleS ELP: where do we go from here

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The CercleS ELPwhere do we go from here?

• David Little
• Trinity College Dublin

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Overview

• Introduction Where is here?
• What are the challenges?
• Three focuses for future action
• Revising and updating the CercleS ELP
• Supplementing the CercleS ELP
• Embedding the CercleS ELP - making the university
  language learning environment more receptive
• Conclusion

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Introduction Where is here?

• The CercleS ELP
• was specially designed for use in universities
  across Europe
• accommodates all levels of language proficiency
  from beginner (A1) to advanced (C1 and C2)
• can be used by students who are learning one or
  more foreign languages
• (i) as their main focus of study
• (ii) as a subsidiary part of their study, or
• (iii) in order to give added valued to their
  study
• can also be used by students who are not
  currently learning a language but who wish to
  gather evidence of their L2 proficiency in order
  to support applications for further study or
  employment

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Introduction Where is here?

• Implementation, research and impact
• Since the CercleS ELP was validated in 2002
• it has been used with success in university
  language centres in a number of European
  countries
• it has been translated into Czech, Slovak and
  Italian (other translations are in preparation)
• it has been the focus for small-scale qualitative
  research studies
• But the CercleS ELP
• is still not widely known outside university
  language centres
• has not revolutionized university language
  learning and teaching

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Introduction Where is here?

• The wider scene
• Since its publication in 2001 the CEFR has
• taken the world of language testing by storm
• inspired a thoroughgoing reform of language
  curricula for schools in a handful of countries
  (notable examples Finland, Sweden, Czech
  Republic)
• become an obligatory reference point for
  unreformed curricula and language textbooks
  almost everywhere
• But despite the Bologna process
• the CEFR has had little impact on language
  teaching at universities
• all too often university language curricula,
  teaching and assessment remain vulnerable to
  critical scrutiny

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What are the challenges?

• The CEFR
• The CEFRs action-oriented (can do) approach to
  the description of language use and language
  learning implies a close relation between
  curriculum, teaching/learning and assessment
• The same can do descriptor can be used to
• define a curriculum goal
• provide a focus for the development of learning
  activities and materials
• provide a starting point for the elaboration of
  assessment criteria
• This implies the need for cyclical reform with
  three interacting focuses

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What are the challenges?

• Reforming university language teaching means
• developing curricula whose communicative
  component is expressed in action-oriented (can
  do) terms - cf. IILTs English Language
  Proficiency Benchmarks
• designing assessment instruments that are shaped
  by the same action-oriented philosophy
• using the ELP to mediate the curriculum, support
  students in their learning, and foster the
  development of learner autonomy and lifelong
  language learning
• creating an educational culture that promotes
  reflection and accommodates self-assessment as
  well as professionally designed tests

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What are the challenges?

• The role of CercleS in promoting reform
• CercleS is one of only two pan-European
  associations for language professionals at
  university level
• Because it is a confederation of national
  associations of university language centres,
  CercleS has direct access to innovation in
• applications of ICT to language learning
• self-access language learning and language
  advising
• pedagogical experiments of various kinds
• Because it has its own ELP, CercleS is well
  placed to support the implementation of Europass,
  the European Language Passport and the Bologna
  Diploma Supplement

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Revising and updating the CercleS ELP

• Strengthening the link with the CEFR
• Do the checklists need to be revised?
• Are all the descriptors clearly in line with the
  scales of the CEFR? (I have doubts about the B1
  checklists, where some descriptors now seem to me
  too advanced)
• Can the checklists be improved by drawing on the
  Council of Europes bank of descriptors?
• What can be learnt from language-specific
  elaborations of the CEFR (e.g. in French, German
  and Czech)?

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Revising and updating the CercleS ELP

• Accommodating a wide variety of learner needs
• Do not attempt to develop separate checklists for
  different specialisms - in that way you will
  easily lose alignment with the CEFR
• Instead, interpret descriptors in terms of the
  demands of different areas of specialized
  language use, e.g.
• Literary studies
• Legal studies
• Economics and business
• Add your interpretations to the CercleS ELP as
  optional soft pages

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Revising and updating the CercleS ELP

• Accommodating a wide variety of learner needs
• Example 1, B2 reading
• I can quickly scan through long and complex texts
  on a variety of topics in my field to locate
  relevant details
• What is my field?
• What is an appropriate variety of topics?
• In terms of field and topics, what counts as a
  long and complex text?
• What count as relevant details

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Revising and updating the CercleS ELP

• Accommodating a wide variety of learner needs
• Example 2, B2 writing
• I can write clear detailed text on a wide range
  of subjects relating to my personal, academic or
  professional interests
• What are my academic and/or professional
  interests?
• What is an appropriate range of subjects?
• How do we define clear detailed text?

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Revising and updating the CercleS ELP

• Taking account of teacher and learner experience
• Are there any ways in which the CercleS ELP can
  be made more user-friendly?
• In particular, is it possible to make the model
  more receptive to recursive use?
• Are the various introductions, instructions and
  rubrics clear enough? If not, how should they be
  revised?
• Does experience suggest that there are any parts
  of the ELP that require more elaborate
  explanation or instructions?

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Revising and updating the CercleS ELP

• Taking account of language learning research
• Does research in any of the following areas have
  implications for the design of pages in the
  language biography?
• Learner autonomy and its operationalization
• Motivation
• Strategies and learning styles
• Intercultural experience, awareness and
  competence (cf. the Council of Europes project
  to develop an Autobiography of Intercultural
  Encounters)
• Is there an argument for giving more content and
  shape to the dossier? If so, how should this be
  done?

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Supplementing the CercleS ELP

• For teachers
• Should there be a guide to the CercleS ELP for
  teachers?
• Note that guides have been developed for
• 10.2001 Irish post-primary language learners
• 11.2001 (rev 2004) Primary learners of ESL
  (IILT)
• 12.2001 (rev 2004) Post-primary learners of ESL
  (IILT)
• 37.2002 The Milestone ELP for adult immigrants
  learning the language of the host community

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Supplementing the CercleS ELP

• For learners
• IILT has developed several hundred activities/
  worksheets that lead into and out of the
  Milestone ELP (www.iilt.ie)
• Should a similar approach be adopted by CercleS,
  perhaps by international collaboration that
  focuses on different aspects of language learning
  and/or different dimensions of language use?
• Cf. my earlier point about the need to interpret
  general descriptors in terms of the demands of
  different areas of specialized language use

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Embedding the CercleS ELP

• Experience and common sense suggest that the ELP
  will be most readily adopted when
• it is supported by a curriculum specified in
  action-oriented terms (cf. IILTs English
  Language Proficiency Benchmarks)
• the self-assessment that is fundamental to
  effective ELP use is complemented by formal tests
  that are shaped by the same can do descriptors
• Why not design a generic action-oriented
  curriculum framework for university language
  learners? (Cf. the Curriculum Framework for
  Romani recently published by the Council of
  Europe)
• Why not design action-oriented test
  specifications and rating scales?

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Conclusion

• How to make progress
• Draw up a list of the actions that need to be
  taken
• Establish a small steering group to elaborate an
  action plan and coordinate its implementation
• Find a volunteer (preferably a national
  association) to lead each action, drawing on the
  interest and expertise of colleagues in as many
  countries as possible
• Set realistic but firm deadlines for progress
• Report on progress and achievements at each
  CercleS conference
• Make everything you do freely available on the
  CercleS web site