The Elp Is Useful For Language Learning Process

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As to the two parallel ways of implementation, the teachers found advantages and drawbacks in both. The system Cheap Cartier Jewelry based on tutorial sessions had the advantage of working with volunteer students who enjoyed being part of a selected group of students with whom they could share their questions and experiences.

Besides, this procedure fitted in perfectly with the concept of autonomous learning since the students were clearly responsible for their ELPs and the teacher's role was that of a mentor. The teachers Cartier Jewellery Necklaces who used the ELP with their whole classes enjoyed the opportunity to use it, but said that their students were not as enthusiastic.

The teachers felt that some of the ELP's forms (such as 1 and 2 in the Passport or 8 in the Language Biography) ...
... were not too user-friendly and that some students did not really become autonomous, but kept relying on the teacher even for basic concepts. Besides, some students felt that they were being forced to use it and therefore had a negative reaction.

During the next two years of implementation (2005-2006 and 2006-2007), the teachers tried to find solutions to the problems previously encountered by the students. For the students who still felt at a loss when asked to assess their own skills, a very useful solution was found in the 'Dialang' test. This is a CEF-based online language assessment system which contains tests in 14 European languages.

It is the first major testing system that is oriented towards diagnosing language skills and providing feedback to users rather than certifying their proficiency. Our students used Dialang in the schools' self-access rooms and found it extremely useful as a way of comparing their own self-assessment with that of the system in the three skills provided.

The students who complained about the lack of purpose for the working world were given the chance to use 'Europass', an initiative from the European Commission to make the skills and qualifications of European citizens clearly and easily understood in Europe. It consists of two documents: the Europass CV and the Europass Language Passport, as well as three supplements. The Europass Language Passport is a simplified version of the ELP's Passport and it allows students to describe their language skills according to the CEF levels.

Our solution to the length and redundancy of the document was partial completion, i.e. to consider some of the forms in each section as compulsory and others as voluntary and to give students the chance to start recording their experiences with one language only. It is worth remembering that the students at our institutions are full-time professionals and university or upper-secondary students and that for them language learning is a secondary activity.

Partial completion was found to be a pedagogically satisfactory solution, even if the ELP could not be used as a reporting tool. The solution to the bulkiness of the format is already under way since the Spanish Ministry of Education is developing an electronic ELP version which will join others developed by the Association of Language Testers in Europe (ALTE).

As to the lack of' clarity of status and purpose of the ELP', to use Glover et al.'s terms, a list of FAQs was developed and uploaded on to the schools' teacher training centre website. An example is the question 'What is this for' for which we offered the following answer, emphasizing the pedagogic aspect rather than the reporting one: Above all, this is for you.

To help you learn to learn, to make you aware of the real aims of language learning, the different ways of learning, what you already know, what is still ahead, how to reach specific objectives, how to record your linguistic competence, your experiences, your language CV... As to the working world, it is not too well-known yet, since we are still in a preliminary phase, but it will in due time.

During the year 2005-2006, a new group of volunteer students was selected for a whole-school programme of tutorial sessions. A total of 52 new questionnaires were gathered, out of which 48 students said that they had found the ELP useful for their language learning process. But it was in the classroom that most of the work was carried out.

After the first year of investigation, a gradual approach was considered best: for the last two years, the teachers have been using an ELP-oriented pedagogy with all their students but have issued ELPs only to the most committed ones. The teachers have prepared and shared a total of in-class portfolio-oriented activities, to be used in English, French, Italian, and German with students