Taking into account my personal teaching context, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of using the ELP with my groups?

     

Advantages & Disadvantages of the ELP

Due to increasing mobility in Europe, Europeans often speak languages other than their mother tongue at home or in the street. Language learning not only occurs at school. Therefore, it is important to have a good insight into the way in which people learn languages, and   what levels of language skills are achieved when people learn languages in formal as well as in informal contexts. In order to facilitate this situation, two instruments were developed: 1) A Common European Framework of Reference setting six language proficiency levels; and 2) a European Language Portfolio (ELP), which is a personal document that not only covers a series of formal certificates, but can also document other language experiences and that consists of three parts : a language Passport, language Biography and a Dossier.

Taking into account my personal teaching context (at my school I teach Arts & Crafts in the third grade of primary), I am sure that the application of the ELP means an important opportunity to improve the learning of English for my students, as through it, my pupils can have their own control about their language learning process and profile themselves in a positive way because their language knowledge is considered to be an asset. Therefore, it can result in a motivating tool.  Furthermore, it offers strategies to plan and evaluate students’ learning, which may encourage them to go on. And lastly, it may facilitate their future mobility in Europe, either as a student or as a worker.

Nevertheless, there are some drawbacks as well, as not only may younger students not understand at the beginning the ELP’s usefulness, but they may also find it too complex to carry out.

But all in all, I have to point out the importance of the pedagogical function, as well as, the importance of embedding the use of the language portfolio in the school curriculum as a new useful methodology and  as a practical evaluating and learning tool.