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

Nowadays and it can be from always, teachers and society wants to improve children education. I have never listened to talk about ELP (European Language Portfolio) since I was learned in class and the teacher explained all about it. Moreover, I have said it because it is a tool to develop by the Council of Europe to improve a way of teaching and assessing all language in Europe.

I am going to start explaining what ELP is. Then, I will talk about the portfolio and what are the objectives of the Council of Europe through the portfolio. Later, I am going to write the advantages and disadvantages about ELP in secondary school.

First of all, I want to explain shortly the mean of this project, so it is, how I said before, a personal document promote by the Council of Europe, in which learners or who has learned a language, whether at school or outside it, they can record their experiences of learning languages and cultures and reflect upon the portfolio.

The European Language Portfolio consists of three parts:

- Language Passport:
Students reflect what they can do in different languages, incidentally, they have to use the self assessment box in which describes the powers of skills (speaking, reading, listening and writing). Then, they can reflect and evaluate themselves. It also contains information on diplomas, courses they have attended and relates to other languages and cultures contacts.

- Language Biography:
In this part, students describe their experiences in each languages and it is designed to guide the learner in planning and evaluating their described progress.

- Dossier:
This is the last part, it contents personal work to show the content and languages skills they have learned during the course.

Secondly, what is a portfolio? And, which are the objectives of the Council of Europe through the portfolio? So, to develop of democratic citizenship in Europe the objectives are deeping understanding and tolerance among the citizen of Europe, the protection and the promotion of linguistic and cultural diversity, the promotion of multilingualism through learning of language and cultures throughout life and the clear and transparent description of language skills and qualifications to facilitate mobility in Europe.

At least, but not to conclude, the advantages and disadvantages about using ELP in secondary school where I will teach are explained below. First, related to positive aspects, as I see it, ELP is very useful. Furthermore, it offers a lot of information about students learning progress and they can realize how they are improving step by step. It also develops students’ responsibilities and autonomy. It may be is a motivated thing for students because they will want to be up-to-date. There are a lot of advantages, however, there are a few disadvantages.

As I see it the worst disadvantage could be at the beginning, because teachers have to encourage students to understand what the portfolio is and what it is used for. Besides, teachers have to motivate their students and teach them about the importance of their work.

To conclude, I think there are more advantages than disadvantages, despite of these disadvantages I like ELP due to the positives things, mainly, and as I see it the most important aspect was the support of the development of learner autonomy, plurilingualism and intercultural awareness and competence.