PRINCIPAL

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

The European Language Portfolio is a personal document of a learner. In this document, learners of all ages include their official recognition achieved during the learning of a language and a record of cultural experiences at school or outside school regarding contacts with other languages and cultures. So, the ELP has three parts: a language passport, a language biography and a dossier with samples of their work in the language.

The ELP has several uses, for example improving language learning and self-assessment, to encourage people to learn languages-through their lives, to facilitate mobility in Europe and to please understanding among European Citizens.

The functions of ELP, from a pedagogical view are several: transparency in the learning process, self-assessment, responsibility and autonomy; from the point of view of information gives teachers real information by diplomas and facilitates mobility.

From my point of view, the advantages of using the ELP with my students are great because students can write their own experiences and can see how they are improving in language. In addition, it makes students more responsible for their knowledge and their learning and promotes tolerance towards another language and cultures as it is a sharing that brings us to other language and cultures.

On the other hand, I consider that its use in class can have some disadvantages. Firstly, most of the teachers are not prepared for using the ELP and moreover they don’t have enough time in class to use it as diary tool. Another disadvantage is that using portfolio requires carefully defined criteria for review and also training for reviewers.  The last one drawback is that the portfolio cannot be just a collection of works that does not reflect student’s growth. It has to be something more than a box of things that students elaborate and teachers save.

To sum up, the use of ELP contributes to develop many basic competences in education as the achievement of autonomy by the students. Indeed, with this tool the language learner is aware of their needs, skills and the new abilities to learn and how to manage their own learning process. It also helps to record their personal language experience and achieve personal goals. In addition, ELP is a document that brings teachers to the realities of our classrooms where increasingly more cultural diversity.