PACIS XXI: Aligning English language curriculum with the CEFR/CV for 21st century learning

Abstract

"This article aims to outline and describe how the PACIS XXI team (Projetar a Área Curricular de Inglês para o Século XXI), nominated by the Azorean Regional Government’s Secretary of Education in 2017, designed and promoted the implementation of the CEFR-based English curriculum guidelines. Its acronym, which translated means to launch English as a curriculum component into the 21st century, states the essence of what the team was mandated to do. The key mission was to analyse the state of English language teaching, learning and assessment and design a curriculum document to sustain English language education at the primary level in the Azores, Portugal. In July 2022, the guidelines, Orientações Curriculares de Inglês dos 1.º e 2.º ciclos do ensino básico (OCI), were published. First, we delved into the CEFR/CV with New Descriptors (Council of Europe [COE] 2018), then later, while the guidelines were up for public discussion as a working document, between 2019 and 2022, we enhanced them using the final version of the CEFR/CV (COE 2020). Aligning curriculum guidelines with the CEFR/CV meant not only aligning proficiency levels for different grades, but also looking closely at what it means to take an action-oriented approach to language learning. Hence the need to move forward into designing descriptors for communicative activities, and not for the traditional four skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. We presented planning and assessment tools and templates aligned with an action-oriented approach, incorporating the Understanding by Design/Backwards Theory (Wiggins and McTighe 2005). We also looked at pedagogical assessment, where formative assessment is key, as put forward by Dylan Wiliam (2011) as well as the conceptual framework shared by the Projeto MAIA through the Portuguese educational system. Over a hundred teachers in thirty schools were involved. Various types of training were developed, based on the curriculum guidelines, as well as needs expressed by teachers. All this work was not only validated by policymakers, but also by APPI (Associação Portuguesa de Professores de Inglês), the Portuguese English teachers’ association who thoroughly revised the guidelines. In sharing this experience, we hope to lend some insight into how the CEFR/CV can be used and adapted for curriculum design and can enhance teaching, learning and assessment. "