Promoting student autonomy through the use of the European Language Portfolio

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is a document launched by the Council of Europe in 2001 which consists of three sections: the Passport, the Language Biography, and the Dossier. It has two complementary functions: a pedagogic function (helping students to reflect on their learning and objectives) and a reporting function (providing a record of their language skills in terms of the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference). The author has coordinated trials of the ELP in two adult language schools in northern Spain. Following a preparatory training period, the project was carried out for a year. A number of problems were detected and solutions for them were found mainly through the use of IT: a web-based resource centre was created, where over 50 ELP-oriented activities and a list of FAQs was uploaded. In addition, students were encouraged to use e-Portfolios and ‘Europass’ as well as the online ‘Dialang’ test to help them in the self-assessment process. With the help of IT resources, the ELP has proved to be extremely useful as a pedagogical rather than a reporting tool. It has raised student awareness about the language learning process and its implications and has promoted learner autonomy to a very high degree.