The "Proposal for a Council Recommendation on a comprehensive approach to the teaching and learning of languages" and its Annex about "Language Awareness in Schools – developing comprehensive approaches to language learning" are available in all official EU languages in the EurLex database.

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.