CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox

The ECML project “CEFR Companion Volume Implementation Toolbox” – or “the VITbox Project” for short – has now started its activities. The project aims to provide digital resources that exemplify how to implement the ideas of the new CEFR Companion Volume in language teaching at university and in vocational training. These resources will include short videos, checklists, texts and classroom tasks and for use by teacher educators and teacher trainers in their training sessions and by language teachers for self-study purposes. The material will be produced in English and French but will include examples from other languages. The idea behind the VITbox project is to create an open toolbox from which educators, trainers and teachers can freely choose the resources they consider suitable for their purposes, adapt them to their individual training needs and eventually create their own material.

The team is now looking forward to setting up a substantial database of varied materials, that has been piloted in their own training sessions and freely available to the public.

 

Johann Fischer, Laurent Rouveyrol, Barbara Sawicka, Julia Zabala Delgado

 

• VITbox project website: English - French
• ECML programme of activities 2020-2023 "Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences": English - French

What exactly is mediation? Do we fully understand the notions of plurilingualism, pluriculturalism and action-orientation as presented in the CEFRCV? To what extent have we already integrated these concepts into our teaching practice? What are the next steps we can take? 

These are some of the questions that were addressed in a two-day ECML Training and consultancy event which was part of the national network meeting of language teachers at upper secondary vocational colleges. 

This network meeting takes place every year and this year it was organised by CEBS and the Private University of Education, Diocese of Linz. Together with the two ECML experts, Silvia Melo-Pfeifer and Julia Consuelo Zabala Delgado, we discussed concepts, explored existing materials and developed our own classroom activities. The ideas focused on at the event were not completely new to the participants, as they had been discussed in previous professional development seminars. Therefore, the in-depth insights that this event provided were even more valuable.

Gaining a deeper understanding is absolutely essential since mediation, as well as plurilingual and pluricultural approaches, is anchored in the current curricula and will be even more prominent in the new curricula which are currently being developed. The two experts provided knowledge and material that will be adapted and used by the participants, not only for their own teaching, but also for teacher development activities. The MedVITBox training definitely strengthened the professional competence of everyone who took part.

 

Belinda Steinhuber and Ute Atzlesberger, Centre for Vocational Languages of the Federal Ministry of Education of Austria

• ECML training and consultancy offer for member states “The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts”

 

 

German version: 

Neue Konzepte verstehen – den Weg für weitere Innovationen ebnen 

Was genau ist Mediation? Haben wir die im CEFRCV vorgestellten Begriffe Mehrsprachigkeit, Multikulturalität und Handlungsorientierung in ihrem vollen Umfang verstanden? Inwieweit haben wir diese Konzepte bereits in unsere Unterrichtspraxis integriert? Welche nächsten Schritte können wir setzen? Dies sind einige der Fragen, die bei einem zweitägigen „Training and consultancy event“ des EFSZ behandelt wurden, das im Rahmen des jährlichen nationalen Netzwerktreffens von Sprachlehrkräften an berufsbildenden Schulen der Sekundarstufe II stattfand.

Das Netzwerktreffen wurde von CEBS und der Privaten Pädagogischen Hochschule der Diözese Linz organisiert. Zusammen mit den beiden EFSZ-Expertinnen Silvia Melo-Pfeifer und Julia Consuelo Zabala Delgado diskutierten wir Konzepte, untersuchten vorhandene Materialien und entwickelten eigene Unterrichtsaktivitäten. Die Themen, auf die sich die Veranstaltung konzentrierte, waren für die Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmer nicht völlig neu, da sie bereits in anderen Fortbildungsseminaren behandelt worden waren. Umso wertvoller waren daher die vertiefenden Einblicke, die diese Veranstaltung bot. 

Ein tieferes Verständnis ist absolut notwendig, da Mediation sowie mehrsprachige und multikulturelle Ansätze in den aktuellen Lehrplänen verankert sind und in den neuen Lehrplänen, die derzeit entwickelt werden, noch mehr Gewicht erhalten werden. Die beiden Expertinnen stellten Wissen und Materialien zur Verfügung, die von den Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern nicht nur für ihren eigenen Unterricht, sondern auch für Lehrerfortbildungen angepasst und genutzt werden können. Die MedVITBox-Schulung hat die fachliche Kompetenz aller Teilnehmenden definitiv ganz wesentlich gestärkt.

 

Belinda Steinhuber und Ute Atzlesberger, Center für berufsbezogene Sprachen des österreichischen Bundesministeriums für Bildung
 

The ECML offers its member states European expertise in language education adapted to the concrete needs and specific contexts within individual countries. This bilateral support in a range of key areas helps strengthen the cooperation between member states and the ECML by taking the expertise gained from ECML projects directly into member states. ECML experts work with national authorities and local experts to devise and implement in-country activities, tailored to the particular context and target audience.  Please note that activities offered in cooperation with the European Commission are subject to a separate Call for requests which will be issued in December.

The  following  ECML training and consultancy activities are on offer for 2026:

• Action research communities for language teachers
• Beyond CLIL – Pluriliteracies teaching for deeper learning
• The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts – Focus: teacher and learner competences  
• The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts – Focus: curriculum and evaluation
• Fostering digital citizenship through language education
• Language for work – Work-related second language learning for adult migrants and ethnic minorities
• Learning environments where languages flourish – Focus: Early language learning
• Learning environments where languages flourish – Focus: Plurilingual and intercultural education
• A roadmap for schools to support the language(s) of schooling
• Plurilingual and intercultural education in early language learning
• Plurilingual and intercultural education: teacher and learner competences
• Steps towards implementing plurilingual and intercultural education

Details of the proposed activities, practical information and the application form can be found here: www.ecml.at/Trainingandconsultancy.

Requests for a Training and consultancy activity must be submitted via the national ECML representative in the Governing Board. Educational professionals interested in a particular activity should therefore contact their national representative.

The application deadline for 2026 is 14 November 2025.

The National Language Working Group, in cooperation with the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz, organised a two-day workshop on October 8 and 9, 2025, aimed at members of the Subject Curriculum Commissions for Languages. The workshop was led by two ECML experts, Maria Stathopoulou (Hellenic Open University, Greece) and Laurent Rouveyrol (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France), and was conducted online due to objective circumstances.
A total of 32 participants attended the workshop, including university professors, consultants from the National Education Institute of the Republic of Slovenia, and primary and secondary school teachers.

The training provided participants with insight into current trends in language teaching, based on the CEFR Companion Volume. It introduced an action-oriented and learner-centred approach to language learning, with particular emphasis on the role of mediation in both oral and written communication - within a single language and across languages. Additionally, the importance of plurilingualism, multilingualism, and interculturality in the modern learning environment was highlighted.

Participants explored ways to meaningfully integrate these approaches into planning and everyday pedagogical practice. The knowledge and materials acquired during the workshop will be adapted and used by participants for teacher training activities related to the implementation of the new curricula and knowledge catalogues.

Barbara Lesničar, Zavod za šolstvo (National Education Institute), OE Maribor

 

More information about the training and consultancy offer of the ECML for member states: "The CEFR Companion Volume: Mediation and other key concepts"

 

News in Slovenian

Izvedena dvodnevna delavnica o sodobnih pristopih k poučevanju jezikov - Zavod RS za šolstvo

Dvodnevna delavnica o sodobnih pristopih k poučevanju jezikov – Training and Consultancy: MEDVitBoX 2025 Slovenija
Področna skupina za jezike je v sodelovanju s Centrom za moderne jezike iz Gradca (ECMJ) 8. in 9. oktobra 2025 organizirala dvodnevno delavnico, namenjeno članom Predmetno kurikularnih komisij za jezike. Delavnico sta vodila člana ekspertne skupine pri ECMJ, Maria Stathopoulou (Hellenic Open University, Grčija) in Laurent Rouveyrol (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Francija) in je bila zaradi objektivnih razlogov izpeljana na daljavo. Delavnice se je udeležilo 32 udeležencev (univerzitetni profesorji, svetovalci Zavoda RS za šolstvo in učitelji osnovnih ter srednjih šol).

Izobraževanje je udeležencem ponudilo vpogled v sodobne smernice poučevanja jezikov, ki temeljijo na dokumentu CEFR Companion Volume. Predstavljen je bil dejavnostno naravnan in za učence osmišljen pristop k učenju jezikov angl. action approach), poseben poudarek pa je bil namenjen vlogi posredovanja v ustni in pisni komunikaciji, tako v enem jeziku kot med jeziki ter pomenu večjezičnosti, raznojezičnosti in medkulturnosti v sodobnem učnem okolju.

Udeleženci so raziskovali možnosti smiselnega vključevanja teh pristopov v načrtovanje in vsakodnevno pedagoško prakso. Znanje in gradivo pridobljeno v delavnici, bodo udeleženci prilagodili in uporabili za usposabljanje učiteljev pri uvajanju novih učnih načrtov in katalogov znanj. 

Barbara Lesničar, Barbara Lesničar, Zavod za šolstvo, OE Maribor
 

The European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) of the Council of Europe is dedicating this special issue of its European Language Gazette to the launch of the resources resulting from its programme “Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences”. From 2020-2023, nine projects addressed the themes of: formative assessment in early language learning and for newly arrived migrant children, languages in support of digital citizenship and other transversal skills, the CEFR Companion Volume and linguistic mediation, CLIL in languages other than English, neighbouring languages in cross-border vocational training, teacher competences for pluralistic approaches. These issues were identified by member states as priority areas when initially establishing the programme.

We encourage you to use these innovative resources, to adapt them to your respective contexts, and to share them within your networks, colleagues and institutions who may benefit from them.

A number of the resources are also featured within the Centre’s current training and consultancy activities – where member states can request national workshops on themes of ECML expertise – with the workshops customized according to the specific context.

 

Table of contents

“Inspiring innovation in language education” – through a wealth of new resources
Launch of new resources
E-Lang Citizen – Digital citizenship through language education
TePA – Developing teacher competences for pluralistic approaches – Tools for teacher education
METLA – Mediation in teaching, learning and assessment
Building blocks for planning language-sensitive teacher education
RECOLANG – Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils
Enhancing language education in cross-border vocational education
CLIL in languages other than English – Successful transitions across educational stages
PALINGUI – Young children’s language learning pathways – Making early language learning visible
VITbox – CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox
Quick links

Enjoy this issue: English – French

“Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences” – Join the livestream!

The conference represents the culmination of the four years of work of the ECML’s “Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences”  programme, involving, among others, 9projects, 1think tank, 12offers of training and consultancy (TaC) and a series of initiatives developed with the support of the European Commission.

The conference is aimed at all language education professionals and in particular at ECML stakeholders, policy makers and persons with a professional focus on the practice of language education (curriculum development, teacher education, material design…).

The programme involves plenary presentations, speeches, a round table, a series of smaller workshops for the presentation and discussion of programme outputs and outcomes as well as envisaged links to activities in the 2024-2027 programme.

The workshops on the second day of the conference will be organised thematically:

• Language teacher and learner competences,
• Transversal dimension of language education / Competences for life and work,
• Plurilingual and intercultural education,
• Languages of schooling; language in subjects.

Within each given theme there will be a focus on the completed project resources and related TaC activities from the current programme. Presenters will focus on the inspiring and innovative aspects of their TaC activity/new resources and will consider how the different approaches and materials presented in their thematic session complement one other.

This will also be an excellent opportunity to get a preview of the new ECML programme “Language education at the heart of democracy” (2024-2027).

In order to ensure access to a wider audience, the event will be streamed in both working languages (English and French) and the recordings made available on the ECML website.

 

Conference web page: English – French

Conference programme: English – French

Join the live streaming here – no registration required: English – French

#ECMLCELVconf2023

On 29 and 30 September 2022, the VITbox team met at the ECML in Graz to discuss the final steps that need to be taken to successfully complete the project. The aims of the meeting were to discuss the development and revision of the VITbox resources, to implement the suggestions received from participants who attended the ECML workshop and webinar, and to discuss future dissemination activities (i.e. conference presentations, webinars, workshops and publications in journals and conference proceedings). The team looked back at a series of successful events where it received useful feedback on the draft resources developed with the support from participants at the ECML workshop in 2021 and the network meeting in April 2022, at conference presentations, during workshops and webinars. Participants have shown a lot of  interest in the resources and contributed with valuable comments and suggestions. The team will now work on the final project webpage and make the resources available to a larger audience for dissemination and feedback purposes, while continuing to develop, pilot and finalise the remaining VITbox files. Watch this space!

Johann Fischer, ECML project coordinator

 

• ECML project website “CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox” (VITBox) (2020-2023): English – French
• « Recent developments » section including examples of videos

On 28 June 2022 the VITbox project was presented to participants of the “FIPLV World Congress of Modern Languages in conjunction with the Annual Conference of the Polish Association of Modern Languages – ‘Language education in the times of global change: The need for collaboration and new perspectives’”. The conference was organised by the International Federation of Language Teacher Associations (FIPLV), the Polish Association of Modern Languages and the Faculty of Modern Languages at the University of Warsaw in Poland.

During the conference, the VITbox project team gave a half-hour presentation on “CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox – a repository of online tools for language teachers and teacher educators”, in which they presented the aims and objectives of the CEFR Companion Volume Implementation Toolbox (VITbox) project and showed examples of the professional development training materials.

The presentation was met with great interest. The audience asked questions about the project and expressed interest in using the products as well as cooperating with the team in the future.

Furthermore, the Congress was an opportunity to meet language educators from across the globe and to discuss a wide variety of issues involved in the teaching and learning of modern languages. It was also an important forum for disseminating the latest research findings in these areas. The team participated in a number of presentations which focused on the following topics:

• teaching language skills and subsystems;
• new technologies in L2 learning and teaching;
• multilingual education;
• developing intercultural competence;
• learner autonomy and language learning strategies;
• content and language integrated learning;
• classroom interaction and management;
• teachers’ knowledge and beliefs;
• teacher education;
• syllabus design;
• the CEFR;
• assessing L2 knowledge;
• methodology of research on L2 learning and teaching.

Barbara Sawicka and Johann Fischer

 

• ECML project website “CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox” (VITBox): English – French

On 18 and 19 November 2021, the VITbox team met at the ECML in Graz to reflect on the outcomes of the ECML workshop in September with 34 participants from all over Europe. The aims of the meeting were to discuss the development and revision of the VITbox resources, to work on dissemination activities and to plan a network meeting to take place in April 2022. 

The team has been looking back at a series of successful events and has received useful feedback on the resources developed by participants at the ECML workshop, conference presentations, workshops and webinars. Participants have shown great interest in the resources and contributed with valuable comments and suggestions. The team will now work on the further development of the project webpage and make the resources available to a larger audience for dissemination and feedback purposes, while continuing to develop, pilot and finalise the remaining VITbox modules. 

Watch this space!

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The VITbox project (2020-2023) is developing tools in various languages to help teacher educators use and disseminate the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume. It will provide digital documents and examples of inspiring practice in the implementation of the Companion Volume in language learning, teaching and assessment at university and in vocational training.

On 17 September 2021, the VITbox team ran a workshop on “The VITbox menu, a truly linguistic experience!” during the biennal conference of the Asociación de Centros de Lenguas en la Enseñanza Superior (ACLES) in Murcia (Spain). Participants were introduced to the VITbox resources and were invited to comment on the usefulness of the materials as well as reflect upon how they could adapt and apply them in their individual contexts.

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The ECML VITbox project (2020-2023) is developing tools in various languages to help teacher educators use and disseminate the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume. It will provide digital documents and examples of inspiring practice in the implementation of the Companion Volume in language learning, teaching and assessment at university and in vocational training.

On 14 and 15 September 2021, 32 participants from 27 countries in Europe attended an online workshop organised by the ECML in which the VITbox project team presented their professional development modules on how to implement the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume in teaching, learning and assessing languages in higher education and vocational training. The participants had the opportunity to work with the resources developed and provided valuable feedback to the members of the team, as well as suggesting additional elements that could be included. They exchanged ideas on how to adapt and integrate the VITbox resources into their own professional development activities and their teaching context. The VITbox team is eager to see how the participants will use the resources in their countries and contexts and how these activities may contribute to language education in university and vocational training.

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The VITbox project (2020-2023) is developing tools in various languages to help teacher educators use and disseminate the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume. It will provide digital documents and examples of inspiring practice in the implementation of the Companion Volume in language learning, teaching and assessment at university and in vocational training.

On 5-6 July 2021, the VITbox team met to prepare the central event of their project, the workshop taking place in September. The objectives of this workshop are to introduce the participants to the VITbox materials, to gather feedback and to invite them to pilot and implement the materials in their own contexts. Hopefully, this will be the first face-to-face workshop the ECML has hosted since the end of the lockdown. The VITbox workshop will be organised in a hybrid format, and the project team is looking forward to meeting a fair number of representatives from the 33 ECML member states in Graz in person and to a fruitful exchange of ideas with all participants – those present in Graz and those taking part online.

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The VITbox project (2020-2023) is developing tools in various languages to help teacher educators use and disseminate the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume. It will provide digital documents and examples of inspiring practice in the implementation of the Companion Volume in language learning, teaching and assessment at university and in vocational training.

The VITbox project team has been developing online modules to help language teacher educators and teachers become familiar with the content of the CEFR Companion Volume. These modules will be available for use in initial teacher training, in professional development activities and for self-study purposes. They can also be adapted by the users according to their individual needs and contexts.

Our French-German-Polish-Spanish project team has already developed prototypes of two modules for the course. The modules were first presented last month at two events: 1st AKS Online Conference “Quo vadis language instruction: On the threshold of new forms of teaching” organised by Arbeitskreis der Sprachenzentren an Hochschulen e.V. on 4 March 2021, and during a webinar run by Grupo de Interés en Evaluación de Lenguas en España (GIELE), a national organisation promoting research and initiatives on language assessment in Spain, on 12 March 2021.

The VITbox project team (Johann Fischer from Universität Göttingen, Laurent Rouveyrol from Université Nice Côte d'Azur, Barbara Sawicka from Politechnika Poznańska and Julia Zabala Delgado from Universitat Politècnica de València) presented the aims and objectives of the VITbox project and examples of training activities and materials taken from the project modules. The presenters provided a first insight into these modules and explained how the material can be used, for example in professional development workshops.

The presentation “The VITbox Project – an online toolbox for teacher educators to implement the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume 2020” delivered at the AKS conference highlighted examples of training materials and activities which discuss the issues of online communication, whereas the webinar “Proyecto VITbox” at the GIELE meeting was illustrated with selected materials related to language mediation. Both were followed by discussions of the concepts presented and the content of the project modules. This provided project team members with valuable and constructive feedback.

For more information visit the websites:

1. 1st AKS online conference "Quo vadis language lnstruction: On the threshold of new forms of teaching": a conference presentation of the VITbox project
2. Online GIELE webinar: "Cómo familiarizar a los profesionales de las lenguas con el contenido del Volumen Complementario al MCER: proyecto VITbox – un programa de desarrollo profesional online"

More coming soon…

 

• VITbox project website: English - French

The VITbox team met on September 7th and 8th to discuss the draft VITbox material within the ECML project “CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox”. These materials are designed to help teacher educators and teacher trainers in initial teacher training and in professional development programmes as well as language teachers to implement the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume. At the end of the project, you will have access to a mouth-watering Companion Volume Moodle course offering the following items on the menu:

• VITbox appetizers (short videos on individual modules)
• VITbox main course list (offering more extensive videos on each module)
• VITbox full experience with a cherry on top (providing further reading material)
• VITbox dessert list (with recorded webinars)
• VITbox wine list (with bibliographical references)

and special treats such as:

• VITbox dégustation (sample tasks for teaching and assessment)
• VITbox shopping list (offering checklists for training contexts)
• VITbox recipes (training activities)

etc.

Bon appétit! Enjoy your meal!

Johann Fischer, Laurent Rouveyrol, Barbara Sawicka, Julia Zabala Delgado

• VITbox project website: English - French
• ECML programme of activities 2020-2023 "Inspiring innovation in language education: changing contexts, evolving competences": English - French