The Education Policy Division of the Council of Europe will organise a conference on 16-17 May 2018, in Strasbourg, France, to launch the CEFR Companion Volume with New Descriptors (CEFR/CV). 

The Launching Conference “Building inclusive societies through enriching plurilingual and pluricultural education” is part of a series of activities to promote and plurilingual and pluricultural education and contribute improving learning and teaching languages with a special focus on The CEFR Companion Volume, as a complement to the existing Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR).

The Conference will be accompanied by parallel workshops where language education professionals and stakeholders will discuss implications, opportunities and challenges for language learning, teaching and assessment; develop recommendations and a road map for implementation; initiate constructive dialog.

For further information and to register your application please visit the conference website by 26 March 2018.

• Concept note and programme

One of several aims of the project "Towards a Common European Framework for Language Teachers" is the piloting and further development of existing instruments. In 2018, there are important news for three instruments: 

A new website profils-langues.ch has been launched for foreign language teachers and student teachers to self-assess their language competences in the target language. The website also contains model tasks for formative assessment by teacher educators, based on the Profession-related Language Competence Profiles (available in English, French, German and Italian here). In 2018, further insights from the piloting activities will feed into the CEFRLT project at the ECML.

Work is continuing on a parallel version of the existing Eaquals Framework for Language Teacher Training and Development that is aimed specifically at teachers of languages for academic purposes working on courses intended for students in higher education. The aim is to raise the awareness of teachers and others with different levels of experience in this sector concerning the specific areas of knowledge and skill required for this kind of language teaching. A validation exercise will be undertaken in 2018.

The overall structure of the future "Framework of reference for the training of teachers in the use of pluralistic approaches" has been stabilized (ethical and political dimension, linguistic and cultural competences, methodological competences) after discussions and exchanges at presentations. It should now be subject to only a few adjustments. The framework is based on the Framework of reference for pluralistic approaches to languages and cultures (FREPA) and the Skills Reference Data in Didactics of the Intercomprehension (REFDIC). In 2018, efforts will focus on the internal structure of each dimension, and on the declination of skills in savoirs, savoir-être and savoir-faire.

In the recent Communication "Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture - The European Commission's contribution to the Leaders' meeting in Gothenburg, 17 November 2017", language learning has emerged as one of the European Commission's priorities. Over the last years, the Commission has worked together with the Member States to identify successful strategies for language learning in multilingual settings and to facilitate the sharing of good practices in the field.

A Lunchtime debate about how language learning should be promoted in schools will take place in Brussels on 6 February 2018, 12:00-14:00. The session will be opened by Kristina Cunningham (Multilingualism Policy, Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission), who will discuss the role of languages in the European Education Area. It will be followed by a presentation of two new reports that offer a comprehensive view on literacy and language learning and that take into account the challenges and opportunities facing schools and teachers, including the need to accommodate increasing linguistic diversity in the classrooms:

• Rethinking language education in schools
• Language teaching and learning in multilingual classrooms (presenting many examples of ECML projects)

From the EC contract partner ECORYS, François Staring and Laurie Day will help present the reports. Three external experts, Dina Mehmedbegovic, Kristin Brogan and Deirdre Kirwan will be asked to comment and kick off the discussion. In the past years, Kristin and Deirdre have been involved in several projects, think tanks, training and consultancy initiatives and/or conferences of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe.

The event is open to staff from other DGs of the European Commission and it will be web-streamed.

Find out more

• EC web section dedicated to multilingual classrooms
• ECML training and consultancy “Young migrants – Supporting multilingual classrooms”

Related ECML projects and thematic collection

• A Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches to Languages and Cultures: Competences and Resources (FREPA) (2012)
• Collaborative community approach to migrant education – A virtual open course for educators (EDUCOMIGRANT) (2015)
• Content-based teaching + Plurilingual/-cultural awareness (ConBaT+) ( (2011)
• Language skills for successful subject learning – CEFR linked descriptors for mathematics and history/civics (Language Descriptors) (2015)
• Majority language instruction as basis for plurilingual education (MARILLE) (2011)
• Teaching the language of schooling in the context of diversity – Study materials for teacher development (Maledive) (2015)
• Thematic collection on Migration and language education