The European Language Portfolio in whole-school use

Abstract

This article reports on ‘European Language Portfolio in whole-school use’ (ELP-WSU), one of the projects of the third medium-term programme (2007–2011) of the European Centre for Modern Languages. It begins by briefly introducing the ELP and goes on to consider the three challenges that the ELP poses to L2 pedagogy: the development of learner autonomy, intercultural awareness/competence, and plurilingualism. It then summarises ELP-WSU's successive phases and outcomes, which included reports on ELP projects carried out in 10 different countries (Albania, Austria, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Lithuania, Norway, Romania, and Russian Federation) and describes some of the ways in which the projects responded to the ELP's three pedagogical challenges. Although more than 100 ELPs from 70% of the Council of Europe's member states were validated and accredited between 2000 and 2010, the ELP remains largely untried in most national education systems; this helps to explain why only a minority of ELP-WSU projects were able to undertake whole-school implementation of the kind originally envisaged. At the same time, some of the project reports suggest that the ELP has a central role to play in achieving the goals of the Council of Europe's Languages in/for Education project, which promotes the concept of plurilingual and intercultural education.