The Common European Framework in its political and educational context What is the Common European Framework?

6.3
What can each kind of Framework user do to facilitate language learning?
The language teaching profession forms a ‘partnership for learning’ made up of many
specialists in addition to the teachers and learners most immediately concerned at the
point of learning. This section considers the respective roles of each of the parties.
6.3.1
Those concerned with examinations and qualifications will have to consider
which learning parameters are relevant to the qualifications concerned, and the level
required. They will have to make concrete decisions on which particular tasks and
activities to include, which themes to handle, which formulae, idioms and lexical
items to require candidates to recognise or recall, what sociocultural knowledge and
skills to test, etc. They may not need to be concerned with the processes by which the
language proficiency tested has been learnt or acquired, except in so far as their own
testing procedures may have a positive or negative ‘wash back’ effect on language
learning.
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state the assumptions
concerning language learning on which their work is based and their methodological
consequences.
Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: learning, teaching, assessment
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6.3.2
Authorities, when drawing up curricular guidelines or formulating syllabuses,
may concentrate on the specification of learning objectives. In doing so, they may specify
only higher-level objectives in terms of tasks, themes, competence, etc. They are not
obliged, though they may wish to do so, to specify in detail the vocabulary, grammar and
functional/notional repertoires which will enable learners to perform the tasks and treat
the themes. They are not obliged, but may wish, to lay down guidelines or make sugges-
tions as to the classroom methods to be employed and the stages through which learn-
ers are expected to progress.
6.3.3
Textbook writers and course designers are not obliged, though they may well
wish to do so, to formulate their objectives in terms of the tasks they wish to equip learn-
ers to perform or the competence and strategies they are to develop. They are obliged to
make concrete, detailed decisions on the selection and ordering of texts, activities, vocab-
ulary and grammar to be presented to the learner. They are expected to provide detailed
instructions for the classroom and/or individual tasks and activities to be undertaken by
learners in response to the material presented. Their products greatly influence the
learning/teaching process and must inevitably be based on strong assumptions (rarely
stated and often unexamined, even unconscious) as to the nature of the learning process.
6.3.4
Teachers are generally called upon to respect any official guidelines, use text-
books and course materials (which they may or may not be in a position to analyse, eval-
uate, select and supplement), devise and administer tests and prepare pupils and
students for qualifying examinations. They have to make minute-to-minute decisions
about classroom activities, which they can prepare in outline beforehand, but must
adjust flexibly in the light of pupil/student responses. They are expected to monitor the
progress of pupils/students and find ways of recognising, analysing and overcoming their
learning problems, as well as developing their individual learning abilities. It is neces-
sary for them to understand learning processes in their great variety, though this under-
standing may well be an unconscious product of experience rather than a clearly
formulated product of theoretical reflection, which is the proper contribution to the
partnership for learning to be made by educational researchers and teacher trainers.
6.3.5
Learners are, of course, the persons ultimately concerned with language acquisi-
tion and learning processes. It is they who have to develop the competences and strate-
gies (in so far as they have not already done so) and carry out the tasks, activities and
processes needed to participate effectively in communicative events. However, relatively
few learn proactively, taking initiatives to plan, structure and execute their own learn-
ing processes. Most learn reactively, following the instructions and carrying out the
activities prescribed for them by teachers and by textbooks. However, once teaching
stops, further learning has to be autonomous. Autonomous learning can be promoted if
‘learning to learn’ is regarded as an integral part of language learning, so that learners
become increasingly aware of the way they learn, the options open to them and the
options that best suit them. Even within the given institutional system they can then be
Language learning and teaching
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brought increasingly to make choices in respect of objectives, materials and working
methods in the light of their own needs, motivations, characteristics and resources. We
hope that the Framework, together with the series of specialised user guides, will be of
use not only to teachers and their support services, but also directly to learners in
helping to make them, too, more aware of the options open to them and articulate con-
cerning the choices they make.