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

3.5
Flexibility in a branching approach
Level A1 (Breakthrough) is probably the lowest ‘level’ of generative language proficiency
which can be identified. Before this stage is reached, however, there may be a range of
specific tasks which learners can perform effectively using a very restricted range of lan-
guage and which are relevant to the needs of the learners concerned. The 1994–5 Swiss
National Science Research Council Survey, which developed and scaled the illustrative
descriptors, identified a band of language use, limited to the performance of isolated
tasks, which can be presupposed in the definition of Level A1. In certain contexts, for
example with young learners, it may be appropriate to elaborate such a ‘milestone’. The
following descriptors relate to simple, general tasks, which were scaled below Level A1,
but can constitute useful objectives for beginners:
•
can make simple purchases where pointing or other gesture can support the verbal
reference;
•
can ask and tell day, time of day and date;
•
can use some basic greetings;
•
can say yes, no, excuse me, please, thank you, sorry;
•
can fill in uncomplicated forms with personal details, name, address, nationality,
marital status;
•
can write a short, simple postcard.
The descriptors above concern ‘real life’ tasks of a tourist nature. In a school learning
context, one could imagine a separate list of ‘pedagogic tasks’, including ludic aspects of
language – especially in primary schools.
Secondly, the Swiss empirical results suggest a scale of 9 more or less equally sized, coher-
ent levels as shown in Figure 2. This scale has steps between A2 (Waystage) and B1 (Threshold),
between B1 (Threshold) and B2 (Vantage), and between B2 (Vantage) and C1 (Effective Operational
Proficiency). The possible existence of such narrower levels may be of interest in learning con-
texts, but can still be related to the broader levels conventional in examining contexts.
Common Reference Levels
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In the illustrative descriptors a distinction is made between the ‘criterion levels’ (e.g. A2
or A2.1) and the ‘plus levels’ (e.g. A2+ or A2.2). The latter are distinguished from the
former by a horizontal line, as in this example for overall listening comprehension.
Table 4. Levels A2.1 and A2.2 (A2+): listening comprehension
A2
Can understand enough to be able to meet needs of a concrete type provided speech is clearly
and slowly articulated.
Can understand phrases and expressions related to areas of most immediate priority (e.g.
very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment) pro-
vided speech is clearly and slowly articulated.
Establishing cut-off points between levels is always a subjective procedure; some institu-
tions prefer broad levels, others prefer narrow ones. The advantage of a branching
approach is that a common set of levels and/or descriptors can be ‘cut’ into practical local
levels at different points by different users to suit local needs and yet still relate back to
a common system. The numbering allows further subdivisions to be made without losing
the reference to the main objective being referred to. With a flexible branching scheme
such as that proposed, institutions can develop the branches relevant to them to the
appropriate degree of delicacy in order to situate the levels used in their system in terms
of the common framework.