About CEFR
Introduction
What are CEFR's main goals?
What are the CEFR's central components or 'building blocks'?
a. Can-do statements
b. Language activities
c. Communicative competences
How are all these connected?
4 CEFR Domains
Introduction
From Chile to China, EFL teachers and students are now working with the CEFR –
Common European Framework of Reference (Council of Europe, 2000) for teaching
and learning foreign languages.
The CEFR descriptors for teaching EFL were developed by internationally recognized
researchers who worked together with leading EFL experts, such as University of
Cambridge and British Council.
This comprehensive framework describes typical language learners’ ability in terms
of speaking, reading, listening, writing and interacting with others at six proficiency
bands or levels:
CEFR Level
Israeli Equivalent
A1
Beginners
Trom Besisi
A2
Elementary
Besisi
B1
Intermediate
Mitkadmim Aleph
B2
Upper Intermediate
Mitkadmim Bet
C1
Advanced
????????
C2
Mastery
?????????
What are CEFR's main goals?
Communicative effectiveness
-
to enable language learners to communicate more effectively.
-
to create a plurilingual society in which language is used for better
communication and collaboration between speakers of different language
backgrounds (Council of Europe, 2002).
This emphasis on communicative effectiveness drives the types of activities,
strategies and competences which teachers and students choose to focus on.
'Common language' for describing objectives, methods and assessment
- to provide a 'common language' for describing objectives, methods and assessment which
applies to all languages in Europe.
- to facilitate comparison of language learners' levels.
- to facilitate co-operation among educational institutions in different countries.
What are the CEFR's central components or 'building blocks'?
a. Can-do Statements
b. Language Activities
c. Communicative Competences
a. Can-do Statements
A set of core "can-do" statements describe language activities and
communicative competences that learners can typically do at 6 CEFR levels:
CEFR Level
Israeli Equivalent
A1
Beginners
Trom Besisi
A2
Elementary
Besisi
B1
Intermediate
Mitkadmim Aleph
B2
Upper Intermediate
Mitkadmim Bet
C1
Advanced
????????
C2
Mastery
?????????
b. Language activities
CEFR defines language activities as what a learner is “able to do with a language”
(CEFR p. 43).
6 types of language activities include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Reception / written - reading comprehension
Reception / spoken - listening comprehension – TV, TED talks, lectures.
Production / written - reports, essays, creative writing
Production / spoken – prepared presentations
Interaction / written – at least 2 people participate in a written exchange
- emails, electronic forums
6. Interaction / spoken – everyday conversations, class discussions,
videoconference calls.
c. Communicative competences - sets of knowledge, aptitudes, skills
and attitudes. All 3 competences contribute in different ways to the
learners' ability to communicate.
3 key sets of communicative competences include:
i.
ii.
iii.
Linguistic competence
Socio-linguistic competence
Pragmatic competence
i.
Linguistic competence
Linguistic competence comprises the knowledge and skills related to dimensions
of language as a system:
 lexis – range and quality of lexical knowledge, how this knowledge is stored
in routine expressions.
 phonology
 syntax and grammar
ii.
Sociolinguistic competence
This refers to sociocultural conditions of language use - knowledge and skills in
using language in a social context. These include sensitivity to norms and customs
that affect communication – social norms that affect rules of address, greetings,
politeness etc.
iii.
Pragmatic competence
Pragmatic competence involves the functional uses of linguistic resources
(scenarios or predetermined scripts of interactional exchanges), mastery of
cohesiveness, coherence and discourse.
How are all these connected?
Relationship between language activities and communicative competences:
'Practice makes Perfect'
According to the CEFR, the relationship between language activities and
communicative competences is cyclic: Learners use a range of “toolboxes” or
communicative competences to carry out the above six types of language
activities.
Performing these 6 types of activities then strengthens the key competences.
From: CEFR: Activities, Competences, Levels by Hodel, (2007).
4 CEFR Domains
Language activities are contextualized within 4 domains:
Domain
What does this cover?
Educational
Learning/training contexts (usually related to an institution)
where the aim is to acquire specific knowledge or skills.
Occupational
Everything related to a person's occupation and workplace.
Public
Everything connected to ordinary social interaction
(business, administration, public services, cultural and
leisure activities, the media etc.)
Personal
Complements public domain - family relations and individual
social practices.