Revisiting the principles and functions of the European Language Portfolio with a focus on tertiary education

Abstract

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) is based on principles which tend to challenge traditional learning and teaching practices and thus impact on education policy and systems. The primary owner of the ELP is the learner, and as a personal language learning companion, the ELP has three core functions: pedagogic, reporting and catalytic. For it to be effective, guidance and dialogue are needed during the highly formative years of formal education, and teachers and educational institutions have to accept the role of co-owners. The ELP as a collective tool is used by a variety of additional stakeholders and stakeholder groups pursuing their own purposes, e.g. innovation, quality development and standard setting in educational domains; plurilingualism, mutual understanding and mobility in political contexts; comparability and mutual recognition of qualifications and competences across workplaces in Europe. The innovative strength of the ELP lies not in its individual principles and functions but in the ways in which they interrelate, involve the learner directly, and bundle outcomes and effects of learning over time. With particular reference to tertiary education, this article argues that more differentiated language and intercultural profiles are needed in order to sharpen the focus and increase the relevance of such information in high-stakes situations.