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CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox

The project will develop 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.

Working languages of the project: English, French
Project term: 2020-2022
Shortcut: www.ecml.at/companionvolumetoolbox

Main idea and objectives

The CEFR Companion Volume (CV) stresses the underlying action-oriented and task-based approach of the CEFR and emphasises the idea of the learner as a social agent. This requires a deeper understanding of the role of the social dimension in language. Experience from workshops across Europe has shown that teachers need guidance and tools to integrate notions like mediation into their work. Furthermore, intercultural activities, plurilinguistic tasks and the integration of transferable skills in our teaching need to be re-considered. Likewise, and based on the idea of constructive alignment, a paradigm shift is also needed in assessment practices.

The project will contribute to the implementation of an action-oriented and task-based approach in teaching, learning and assessment and thus make teaching and assessment more relevant to the learner. It will help to stress the importance of mediation tasks, but also of plurilinguistic tasks and intercultural activities and the integration of transferable skills in teaching and assessment. Tasks, activities and scenarios will become more meaningful to the learner – both in teaching and assessment (according to the principles of constructive alignment).

Target groups
This project addresses first of all teacher educators and curriculum designers concerned with language teaching and assessment in university and vocational language training.

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Envisaged project outputs

The toolkit developed by the team will facilitate the activities of teacher educators who wish to implement the ideas of the CEFR Companion Volume in teaching, learning and assessment practices by using material from this database in their professional development activities and in initial teacher training of student teachers.

It will consist of training material structured as an online course in English and French, i.e. PPT documents, worksheets, checklists and webinars – downloadable from project website, offering training material and examples of good practice in various languages

to be used as training material in teacher education and professional development by teacher trainers and teacher educators;
to be used by decision makers and curriculum designers in curriculum design;
to be used by language teachers and test developers for self-study purposes.

Language teachers / examiners will be able to use the training material for self-study purposes.

Furthermore, a database of sample teaching and assessment tasks in various languages, i.e. examples of good practice for different modes of communication and different skills areas, will also be made available in a digital format both for teacher education / professional development and for use in teaching and assessment

to be used as examples of good practice by language teachers and examiners, student teachers and test developers in their course planning;
to be used as sample tasks in teacher education and professional development by teacher educators.

Upcoming events

Sep 2021

Preparatory meeting of the workshop
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14-15

Sep 2021

Workshop
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18-19

Nov 2021

Experts meeting
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Apr 2022

Preparation of the network meeting
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7-8

Apr 2022

Network meeting
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29-30

Sep 2022

Expert meeting
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Latest articles

14.04.2021
"CEFR Companion Volume implementation toolbox": A short update on the VITbox project

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.

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