cohesion - European Centre for Modern Languages

the Council of Europe. The Language Policy Division focuses on the development of
language policies and the facilitation of European language policy co-ordination and
promotion of dialogue among decision-makers, and the ECML works on the
implementation of language policy. The Division is responsible for designing and
implementing initiatives for the development and analysis of language education
policies aimed at promoting linguistic diversity and plurilingualism. The Division is
particularly well known for its work in developing tools and standards to help member
states elaborate transparent and coherent language policies. These instruments, which
are disseminated and used not only throughout Europe but all over the world, have
become a vital contribution to the establishment of a European education area for
modern languages and serve as benchmarks for other bodies and institutions, such as
the European Union.
These essentially aim to raise awareness on critical issues, provide training to language
education practitioners and facilitate networks of specialists. In order to implement
these objectives, the ECML organises a programme of international projects on
language education. These projects are organised in a four-year medium-term
programme, with the current programme running from 2004-2007 under the title of
Languages for social cohesion: language education in a multilingual and multicultural
Europe. Basing its work on the underlying values of the Council of Europe and its
pioneering work in language education, the ECML is ideally equipped to act as a
catalyst for reform in the teaching and learning of languages.
The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is, beside the CEFR, one of the major
projects of the Council of Europe. It is a personal document in which language learners
can record and reflect on their language learning and cultural experiences. The ELP
varies according to countries and educational contexts. However, they all share
common criteria and are all examined by a European Validation Committee, which
accords an accreditation number. The methodology proposed by the CEFR, defining
the descriptors for assessing achievements in language learning, has been accepted and
used in all European environments. It is much harder to formulate appropriate and
sufficiently transparent descriptors for establishing the level of intercultural awareness
as they are related to acts and effects of perception and evaluation, knowledge and
recognition into which an individual inscribes his/her assumptions and interests.
At the request of national or regional authorities, the Council of Europe provides expert
assistance with the development of Language Education Policy Profiles, a process of
analysis and reflection leading to proposals to support a global and coherent approach
to language learning and teaching, and involving all languages in education. Experts’
analyses and comments are based on national reports on language teaching supplied to
them by national authorities and on face-to-face interviews which they are able to
conduct on the spot during their visits, when they make contact with a wide range of
interlocutors. Their report is intended to serve as a starting point for a national debate
on language education – including the mother tongue/first language, recent and longestablished
migrant languages and foreign languages – as a source of national
plurilingual potential. It has to be seen as a dimension of social policy in the
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