The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is a personal
document in which language learners can write down their language learning and
cultural experiences – whether at school or outside school.
The ELP has three obligatory components:
- A language passport: where the language learner summarizes his/her linguistic identity and language learning and intercultural experience. Also he/she records language qualifications, experience of using foreign languages and contacts with others cultures.
- A language biography, where the learner register his/her language learning and intercultural experiences and regularly assess progress.
- A dossier. In this part the learner collects samples of his/her work in the different languages he/she has learnt or is learning.
The language biography provides learners assess themselves.
First students put signs, minuses o ticks for the descriptor on the assessment
grid and then the teacher follow the same procedure to assess learner’s
performance. So the ELP provides a record of students’ linguistic and cultural
skills
In this sense ELP contributes to learner's autonomy
and motivation. The pedagogical benefits are: The transparency in the learning
process, reflection and self-assessment development, responsibility and the
autonomy for their own learning and the possibility of record their lifelong
learning
The use of ELP in class has some disadvantages from my
point of view. The major one is that the ELP isn’t common at schools or high
school and isn’t supported by books or network.
In conclusion the ELP helps students to organize and
keep a record of their learning and empowers them to take responsibility for it,
but curricular teachers need to create more communities of practice, which
allow them share experiences, and save planning time on this subject.
