Taking into account my personal teaching context, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of using the ELP with my groups?

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.