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

participate in the social life of the enterprise or institution (e.g. canteen,
sports and social clubs, etc.).
As a member of the host community, a learner should be able to assist an English-speaking
(native or non-native) person with the tasks listed above.
Threshold Level 1990, Chapter 7, Section 1 gives examples of tasks in the personal domain.
Personal identification
The learners can say who they are, spell their name, state their address, give their
telephone number, say when and where they were born, state their age, sex, state
whether they are married or not, state their nationality, say where they are from,
what they do for a living, describe their family, state their religion, if any, state
their likes and dislikes, say what other people are like; elicit/understand similar
information from others.
Practitioners (teachers, course-writers, examiners, curriculum designers, etc.) and users
(parents, school governors, employers, etc.) as well as learners themselves have found
these highly concrete task specifications very meaningful and motivating as learning
objectives. Tasks are, however, indefinitely large in number. It is not possible for a
general framework to specify in extenso all the communicative tasks that may be
required in real-life situations. It is for practitioners to reflect upon the communicative
needs of the learners with whom they are concerned and then, using as appropriate the
full resources of the Framework model (e.g. as detailed in Chapter 7), to specify the com-
municative tasks they should be equipped to face. Learners should also be brought to
reflect on their own communicative needs as one aspect of awareness-raising and self-
direction.
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state: 
•
the communicative tasks in the personal, public, occupational and/or educational domains
that the learner will need/be equipped/be required to tackle;
•
the assessment of learner needs on which the choice of tasks is based.
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4.3.3
In the educational domain it may be helpful to distinguish between the tasks
which learners are equipped/required to tackle as language users and those in which they
engage as part of the language learning process itself.
With regard to tasks as vehicles for planning, carrying out and reporting on language
learning and teaching, information can be given as appropriate concerning:
•
Types of task, e.g. simulations, roleplay, classroom interaction etc.;
•
Goals, e.g. the group-based learning goals in relation to the differing, less predictable
goals of participants;
•
Input, e.g. instructions, materials, etc. selected or produced by teachers and/or learn-
ers;
•
Outcomes, e.g. output artefacts such as texts, summaries, tables, presentations, etc.
and learning outcomes such as improved competences, awareness, insights, strate-
gies, experience in decision-making and negotiation, etc.;
•
Activities, e.g. cognitive/affective, physical/reflective, group/pair/individual, processes:
receptive and productive, etc. (see section 4.5);
•
Roles, the roles of participants both in the tasks themselves and in task planning and
management;
•
Monitoring and evaluation of the relative success of the task conceived and as carried
out using such criteria as relevance, difficulty expectations and constraints, and
appropriateness.
A fuller account of the role of tasks in language learning and teaching is given in
Chapter 7.
4.3.4
Ludic uses of language
The use of language for playful purposes often plays an important part in language lear-
ning and development, but is not confined to the educational domain. Examples of ludic
activities include:
Social language games:
•
oral (story with mistakes; how, when, where, etc.);
•
written (consequences, hangman, etc.);
•
audio-visual (picture lotto, snap, etc.);
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
the tasks that learners will need/be equipped/be required to undertake in the
educational domain, a) as participants in guided, goal-oriented interactions, projects,
simulations, roleplays, etc., b) in other ways when the L2 (second language) is used as the
medium of instruction in teaching of i) the language itself ii) other curricular subjects,
etc.
Language use and the language user/learner 
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•
board and card games (Scrabble, Lexicon, Diplomacy, etc.);
•
charades, miming, etc.
Individual activities:
•
puzzles (crossword, rebus, anagram, etc.);
•
media games (TV and radio: chiffres et lettres, Catchword, etc.).
Verbal joking (punning, etc.) e.g. in:
•
advertisements e.g. (for a car) ‘Make your money go a long way’;
•
newspaper headlines e.g. ‘Feminism or bust!’;
•
graffiti e.g. ‘Grammar rules – O.K.?’.
4.3.5
Aesthetic uses of language
Imaginative and artistic uses of language are important both educationally and in their
own right. Aesthetic activities may be productive, receptive, interactive or mediating (see
4.4.4 below), and may be oral or written. They include such activities as:
•
singing (nursery rhymes, folk songs, pop songs, etc.)
•
retelling and rewriting stories, etc.
•
listening to, reading, writing and speaking imaginative texts (stories, rhymes, etc.)
including audio-visual texts, cartoons, picture stories, etc.
•
performing scripted or unscripted plays, etc.
•
the production, reception and performance of literary texts, e.g.: reading and writing
texts (short stories, novels, poetry, etc.) and performing and watching/listening to
recitals, drama, opera, etc.
This summary treatment of what has traditionally been a major, often dominant, aspect
of modern language studies in upper secondary and higher education may appear dis-
missive. It is not intended to be so. National and regional literatures make a major con-
tribution to the European cultural heritage, which the Council of Europe sees as ‘a
valuable common resource to be protected and developed’. Literary studies serve many
more educational purposes – intellectual, moral and emotional, linguistic and cultural
– than the purely aesthetic. It is much to be hoped that teachers of literature at all levels
may find many sections of the Framework relevant to their concerns and useful in
making their aims and methods more transparent.
Users of the Framework may wish to consider and where appropriate state:
•
which ludic and aesthetic uses of language the learner will need/be equipped/be required
to make.
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