Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment

 
iii. 
The consideration of how descriptors in ELPs for young learners may (or may not) be 
relevant to the development of competences described in the extended set of CEFR 
illustrative scales, as a feature of life-long learning pathways
.
 
Two main solutions have traditionally been applied to address the length of time it can often 
take for language learners in schools to progress from one CEFR level to the next:
subdividing CEFR levels and/or developing part of a curriculum within one level (see 
http://www.coe.int/en/web/portfolio/the-language-biography
, 
‘ELP 
checklists 
for 
Young 
Learners’). An important consideration for either solution is to what extent young learner ELP 
descriptors for different age groups clearly address the same area of competence in an age-

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appropriate way, or conversely the extent to which the level of cognitive challenge implied by 
a calibrated illustrative descriptor is appropriate or not for a given age group.
 
The illustrative collation provided here aims to better inform evaluation of these issues by 
allowing direct comparison of young learner ELP descriptor samples for primary and post -
primary age groups, placed in parallel with the extended set of CEFR illustrative descriptors. 
In addition, (non-prescriptive) recommendations are given regarding the likely relevance of 
each CEFR descriptor to these age groups.
 
ELP descriptors have not been mapped to the new scales added to the extended set of CEFR 
illustrative descriptors, as this should be regarded as a possible future phase conducted in 
collaboration with practitioners with access to the new scales. Therefore these scales only 
have recommendations as to relevance for age groups.