This document discusses the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and its relevance and applications. It provides an overview of key aspects of the CEFR including its aims to stimulate reflection on language teaching practices and provide common reference points for describing language proficiency levels. It describes the CEFR levels and their salient characteristics. It also discusses how the CEFR can be used for joined-up thinking in language planning, teaching, and assessment. Specifically, it discusses how the CEFR can be used to provide "can do" statements to signpost learning objectives, and how its descriptors can help specify teaching content and assessment criteria.

1. What does the CEFR mean in
practice?
What’s new?
Brian North

2. The CEFR:
A heuristic
not
an answer
to all problems

3. CEFR Aims
Stimulate Reflection
– Consider relevant aspects
– Evaluate current practice: Does it make
sense?
Provide Common Reference Points
– CEFR levels, illustrative descriptors

4. Common Reference Points
Specifying content:
– What is taught and assessed
Stating criteria:
– How performance is interpreted
Describing the levels of programmes,
tests and exams:
– How comparisons can be made

5. Common Reference Points
Descriptors and Levels:
– Categories of descriptors
– Profiles
– Salient characteristics of levels
Relevance of CEFR:
– Networking
– Joined up thinking
– Learner focus

6. Descriptors
Informal Discussion B2
• Can take an active part in informal discussion in
familiar contexts.
• Can with some effort catch much of what is said
around him/her in discussion, but may find it difficult
to participate effectively in discussion with several
native speakers who do not modify their language in
any way.
• Can account for and sustain his/her opinions in
discussion by providing relevant explanations,
arguments and comments.

7. Communicative Activities
Communicative
Strategies
Communicative
Language Competencies
Reception Production
Understanding
a native speaker
Conversation
Informal
Discussion
Formal
Discussion
Obtaining Goods
and Services
Interviewing &
being interviewed
Spoken Written
Interaction Mediation
Overall Language Proficiency
Communicative
Activities
Communicative
Strategies
Communicative
Language Competencies
Reception Production
Understanding
a native speaker
Conversation
Informal
Discussion
Formal
Discussion
Obtaining Goods
and Services
Interviewing &
being interviewed
Spoken Written
Interaction Mediation
Overall Language Proficiency
Communicative
Activities

8. Aspects of Competence
Communicative
Strategies
General
Linguistic
Vocabulary
Range
Range
Grammatical
Accuracy
Phonological
Control
Vocabulary
Control
Orthographic
Control
Control
Linguistic Sociolinguistic Pragmatic
Communicative
Language Competencies
Communicative
Activities
Overall language Proficiency
Communicative
Strategies
General
Linguistic
Vocabulary
Range
Range
Grammatical
Accuracy
Grammatical
Accuracy
Phonological
Control
Phonological
Control
Vocabulary
Control
Vocabulary
Control
Orthographic
Control
Orthographic
Control
Orthographic
Control
ControlControl
Linguistic Sociolinguistic Pragmatic
Communicative
Language Competencies
Communicative
Activities
Overall language Proficiency

9. Aspects of Quality B2
• Range: Has a sufficient range of language to be able to
give clear descriptions, express viewpoints on most general
topics, without much conspicuous searching for words,
using some complex sentence forms to do so.
• Accuracy: Shows a relatively high degree of grammatical
control. Does not make errors which cause
misunderstanding, and can correct most of his/her
mistakes.
• Fluency: Can produce stretches of language with a fairly
even tempo; although he/she can be hesitant as he/she
searches for patterns and expressions, there are few
noticeably long pauses.

10. Profiling
not
Levelling

11. Profiling
The label “B2” is always a convenient
summary of a complex profile.

12. Profiling Languages

13. Profiling – Activities

14. Profiling – Quality

15. Profiling – Prof. needs

16. The label “B2” is always a convenient
summary of a complex profile.

17. But people also expect a simple answer to
the question “What level is s/he?”

18. Common Reference Levels
A metaphor

19. Common Reference Levels

20. Common Reference Levels

21. Common Reference Levels

22. Common Reference Levels
• 20 year process of convergence
• 1976 “The Threshold Level” – “Waystage”
• 1978 Ludwighafen (Wilkins proposal for levels)
• 1991 Rüschlikon (Hargreaves “natural levels“)
• 1993-6 Swiss research project (North & Schneider)
• Levels and descriptors validated
• Qualitative validation (32 workshops)
• Mathematically scaled (2500 learners, 250 teachers)
• Post-validation projects (ALTE, Finland, DIALANG,
Pearson, English Profile, CEFR-J)

23. Common Reference Levels
We simplify to communicate

24. Salient Characteristics A1
The point at which the learner can:
• interact in a simple way
• ask and answer simple questions about
themselves
• respond to statements in areas of immediate
need
rather than relying purely on a rehearsed
repertoire of phrases

25. Salient Characteristics A2
The majority of descriptors stating social
functions:
• greet people, ask how they are and react to news
• handle very short social exchanges
• discuss what to do, where to go and make
arrangements
Descriptors on getting out and about:
• make simple transactions in shops, banks etc.
• get simple information about travel and services

26. Salient Characteristics B1
Maintain interaction & get across what you
want:
• give or seek personal views and opinions
• express the main point comprehensibly
• keep going comprehensibly, even though pausing
evident, especially in longer stretches
Cope flexibly with problems in everyday life:
• deal with most situations likely to arise when
travelling
• enter unprepared into conversations on familiar

27. Salient Characteristics B2
Effective argument:
• account for and sustain opinions in discussion by providing
relevant explanations and arguments
• explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages
and disadvantages of various options
Holding your own in social discourse:
• interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes
regular interaction with native speakers possible
• adjust to changes of direction, style and emphasis
A new degree of language awareness:
• make a note of "favourite mistakes" and monitor
speech/writing for them

28. Salient Characteristics C1
Fluent, well-structured language:
• good command of a broad lexical repertoire
allowing gaps to be readily overcome with
circumlocutions
• express self fluently and spontaneously, almost
effortlessly
• produce clear, smoothly-flowing, well-structured
speech, showing controlled use of organisational
patterns, connectors and cohesive devices

29. Salient Characteristics C2
Precision and ease with the language:
• convey finer shades of meaning precisely by using,
with reasonable accuracy, a wide range of
modification devices
• show great flexibility reformulating ideas in
differing linguistic forms to give emphasis, to
differentiate and to eliminate ambiguity

30. Relevance of the CEFR
• Networking and communication
• Joined up thinking:
– planning
– teaching
– assessment
• Learner Focus

31. Learner focus
• Teaching unplugged
• Learner as social user: needs analysis
• Learner as subject – not object: learner
experience at centre; personal meaning
• Links to previous knowledge, knowledge of the
world, real world skills
• Learner as plurilingual being – strategies/skills
transfer
• Steps towards self-direction (European
Language Portfolio)

32. Relevance of the CEFR
• Networking and communication
• Joined up thinking:
– planning
– teaching
– assessment
• Learner Focus

33. Joined-up thinking
• Planning:
– Curriculum aims, schemes of work
– “Sign-posting” with Can Dos
• Teaching:
– Action-oriented approach: language
and activity
– Practice and error
– A strategic approach
• Assessment and Certification

34. Signposting with Can Do‘s
• learners see why they are learning things
• learners and teachers set priorities
• teachers select appropriate communicative
tasks
• learners focus on form during
communicative tasks
• learners and teachers to assess progress
• schools to report progress to parents

35. Eurocentres

36. Listening
 Understand everyday conversations and discussions
 Understand a recorded story narrated clearly
Spoken Interaction
 Ask for & give information about feelings and news
 Talk about likes, dislikes and problems
 Discuss opinions
 Organise an event and solve problems
 Give advice and recommendations
 Talk about possibilities in the future
 Communicate confidently during travelling and sightseeing
 Compare and contrast choices. e.g. where to go and what to do
 Explain a problem face-to-face or on the phone
Spoken Production
 Describe and compare places
 Describe hopes and ambitions
 Give detailed directions and instructions
 Describe events or experiences, express feelings and reactions
Communicative
Tasks
The most
important things
you need to do in
the language at
this level.
Reading
 Understand descriptions of events and reactions to them (e.g. in personal letters)
 Understand signs and notices and instructions
 Understand the main points of a story
 Understand letters, notes and emails from friends
Writing
 Write a short letter (e.g. postcard)
 Write 400 Chinese characters
Grammar
 Use different adverbs like just
 Use different expressions: besides, some… others,
 Make questions with ba and rang
 Make comparisons (bi) and not as good as
Language
Resources
The grammar and
vocabulary you
need to
communicate
successfully in
the
communicative
tasks listed
above.
Vocabulary
 Cultural topics e.g. music, films
 Feelings and emotions
 Professions and work
 Products
 Language for giving opinions, agreeing and disagreeing
 Telephone language
 Travel and services vocabulary

37. Listening
 Understand everyday conversations and discussions
 Understand a recorded story narrated clearly
Spoken Interaction
 Ask for & give information about feelings and news
 Talk about likes, dislikes and problems
 Discuss opinions
 Organise an event and solve problems
 Give advice and recommendations
 Talk about possibilities in the future
 Communicate confidently during travelling and sightseeing
 Compare and contrast choices. e.g. where to go and what to do
 Explain a problem face-to-face or on the phone
Spoken Production
 Describe and compare places
 Describe hopes and ambitions
 Give detailed directions and instructions
 Describe events or experiences, express feelings and reactions
Communicative
Tasks
The most
important things
you need to do in
the language at
this level.
Reading
 Understand descriptions of events and reactions to them (e.g. in personal letters)
 Understand signs and notices and instructions
 Understand the main points of a story
 Understand letters, notes and emails from friends
Writing
 Write a short letter (e.g. postcard)
 Write 400 Chinese characters

38. Joined-up thinking
• Planning:
– Curriculum aims, schemes of work
– “Sign-posting” with Can Dos
• Teaching:
– Action-oriented approach: language
and activity
– Practice and error
– A strategic approach
• Assessment and Certification

39. Teaching Activity Sequence
The difference between good and bad language teaching
= mainly the connections between Language + Activity
Task-oriented:
Task-based:

40. Practice
• Task-orientation does not at all make practice
obsolete
• Learning a sport/skill requires controlled
practice, plus knowledge; players go jogging,
study tactics
• Learning a sport requires realistic experience
• Autonomous learners: Exposure > Systematic
Practice (form) > Non-systematic practice (sit.s)
• Contextualised practice (a) shifts new things into
“stable” competence; (b) enables automaticity

41. Implications
• Don’t focus on grammar and errors; use of new
structures, breath of expression, fluency, are
more important
• Don’t race through the book - recycle. Learners
need space, meaning-negotiation for transfer
• Do give fluency practice linking and activity
(grammar games, broader, structured tasks )
• Do demand accuracy with what should be
“scripts” learnt as a chunk for certain scenarios

42. Strategies: train students
• how to work in groups: setting a frame;
formulating deep questions; summarising progress
(Interaction strategies)
• how to formulate and check a hypothesis of text
meaning; to infer meaning of new words, log and
practice new words (Reception strategies)
• how to plan (graphic organisers), use
circumlocution, consult dictionaries, draft /
redraft, monitor and correct “favourite mistakes”
(Production strategies)

43. Joined-up thinking
• Planning:
– Curriculum aims, schemes of work
– “Sign-posting” with Can Dos
• Teaching:
– Action-oriented approach: language
and activity
– Practice and error
– A strategic approach
• Assessment and Certification

44. Start with Familiarisation
• People think they know the levels without
consulting descriptors & samples
• People associate CEFR levels with ones
they are familiar with
• People interpret the written word
differently – in descriptors too

45. Assessing CEFR level
• Specification:
– relating the curriculum to Can Do’s
– teacher (and self- ) assessment checklists
– defining/selecting activities, tests
• Standardisation:
– training with documented performance samples
– bench-marking “local” performance samples
• Validation:
– two sources (test/teachers; two assessors)

46. Specification = defining
Tasks / items:
• Select the communicative activities
• Design tasks
• Write items (Listening/Reading/Lang)
Criteria:
• Prioritise communicative competences
• Consult CEFR descriptors
• Create marking grids

47. Why do Standardisation?
Levels: See and agree – not just documents
Performance: What should we expect?
– Imperfect performances: Accuracy declines at B1
– Teachers often have unrealistic expectations
Assessment “Errors”:
– Using own, private concepts and criteria
– Unconscious lead criterion (accuracy / fluency)
– Severity / lenience
– Refusal to give top grade/mark

48. EAQUALS Resources
Curriculum
• Can Do’s (with plus levels)
• Core Inventory: English / French (November)
• Scenarios for teaching modules (in above)
• Curriculum self-help pack
• Curriculum case studies
Assessment
• Performance samples
• Standardisation packs (speaking) E, D, F, I
• Assessment tasks (listen & reading) Eng, Fre (?)
Certification Scheme