About CEFR
From Chile to China, EFL teachers and students are now working with the CEFR – (Common European Framework of Reference) for teaching, learning and assessing foreign languages.
CEFR’s main goals include:
Communicative effectiveness
- to enable language learners to communicate more effectively.
- to create a plurilingual society in which language is used for better communication and collaboration between speakers of different language backgrounds (Council of Europe, 2002).
This emphasis on communicative effectiveness drives the types of activities, strategies and competences which teachers and students can choose to focus on.
'Common language' for describing objectives, methods and assessment
- to provide a 'common language' for describing objectives, methods and assessment which applies to all languages in Europe.
- to facilitate comparison of language learners' levels.
- to facilitate mutual recognition and co-operation among educational institutions in different countries.
The CEFR is an internationally recognized framework that provides a set of guidelines and principles – it is not a curriculum or a syllabus that spells out exactly what to do in the classroom. The framework describes what learners can do in terms of speaking, reading, listening, writing and interacting with others at six proficiency bands or levels. These levels range from A1 (Beginners) to C2 (Mastery) in 4 different contexts or domains.
The CEFR provides a set of statements that describe what learners can typically do in a language at each CEFR level. These descriptors for EFL were developed by University of Cambridge and other internationally recognized researchers who worked together with the British Council and other leading EFL experts.
Language activities are contextualized within 4 domains:
|
Domain |
What does this cover? |
|
Public |
Everything connected to ordinary social interaction (business, administration, public services, cultural and leisure activities, the media etc.) |
|
Personal |
Complements public domain - family relations and individual social practices. |
|
Occupational |
Everything related to a person's occupation and workplace. |
|
Educational |
Learning/training contexts (usually related to an institution). where the aim is to acquire specific knowledge or skills. |