ELP_TT

Training teachers to use the European Language Portfolio
---------Former les enseignants à l'utilisation du Portfolio européen des langues

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Linking assessment with the ELP and the common reference levels

Relevance of topic

Self-assessment is one of the key elements of the ELP. If it is to prove its worth in the "directed" areas of language teaching and learning, it must also take account of the needs and goals of teachers and their institutions, in particular the need to assess students' performance. Such assessment is actually one of the official aspects of the ELP. The Swiss ELP, for example, sets out to help teachers, schools and other educational institutions to assess and document performance and relate final examinations and internal and external certificates and diplomas to the Council of Europe reference levels. The ELP is also important in the preparation of examinations. Schools and other educational institutions are required to base their profiles on the ELP, to make them more transparent vis-à-vis the general public and ensure that their courses and examinations are comparable within the broader European framework.

But how to make sure that tests and assessments do become transparent and can be compared with the common reference levels, while at the same time remaining feasible, in other words compatible with the resources at teachers' disposal?

Working methods

Plenary input followed by two workshops concerned with developing ideas, a video presentation, and individual and collective assessment.

What we want to achieve

• Familiarity with the different types of assessment in the ELP and the instruments and summary procedures associated with them.
• An exploration of the opportunities offered by the ELP and the CEFR to design, specify and evaluate tests and examinations to assess communicative skills.
• Familiarity with techniques for and practical aspects of the process of drawing up tests.
• Draft summaries of objectives of tests comparable to the CEFR.
• Assessment of pupils'/students' performance and consideration of how strict they are as examiners and how much examiners can vary in their level of strictness.