The political dimension of the CEFR

Chabert, Catherine 2017. The political dimension of the CEFR. Presented at: 6th Bremen Symposium On Language Learning And Teaching At Universities, Bremen, Germany, 24-25 February 2017.

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Abstract

The political dimension of the CEFR Nation-states wanting to strengthen a political ambition through language policy-making is not a new phenomenon and many examples can be found in history. At a time when the original descriptors of the CEFR are being critically reviewed by the Council of Europe, linguists and educationalists (the 2014-16 international Council of Europe project and at international conferences such as Bremen’s), it is relevant to note that the European Framework has become a global framework through its adoption by countries such as China and Japan. In the late 1990s, when the Council of Europe devised the CEFR, the aim was to define general competences as well as communicative language competences performed at different proficiency levels. However, as David Little (2007) reminded us, the Council of Europe sought ‘to promote awareness of a European identity based on shared values and cutting across different cultures’. And so, alongside assisting with development of L2 curricula and assessment of learning outcomes (the Framework is not language-specific), the Council of Europe was creating the first supranational language education policy and thus supporting the political and economic European project. This presentation will more specifically consider the Chinese and Japanese approaches to the CEFR and will seek to identify reasons for their adopting a Framework of Reference for Languages that was designed with European languages in mind.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Modern Languages
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PB Modern European Languages
Last Modified:	22 Aug 2017 07:04
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/103750

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