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Language Learning in Higher Education

Journal of the European Confederation of Language Centres in Higher Education (CercleS)

Editor-in-Chief: Szczuka-Dorna, Liliana / O’Rourke, Breffni

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EPOS – the European e-portfolio of languages

Bärbel Kühn
Published Online: 2016-10-06 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2016-0017

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Abstract

Democratic principles and human rights, the core values of the Council of Europe, informed the development of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR; Council of Europe 2001. Common European framework of reference for languages: Learning, teaching, assessment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/Framework_EN.pdf (accessed 20 January 2016)) and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) with its focus on learner autonomy. In Bremen, the smallest federal state of Germany, the validated ELP for the school sector shared the destiny of other ELP models: long-term implementation failed. However, a different fate awaited the electronic version, EPOS, developed not only for the school sector, but for the 20 institutional members of the Sprachenrat Bremen, the Language Council of Bremen. The cooperation of the Language Centre of the four public universities of Bremen with the Department of Computer Science at the University of Bremen was and still is a crucial factor for the development of EPOS, the “Elektronisches Europäisches Portfolio der Sprachen” (Electronic European Language Portfolio). Today, EPOS is supported by the EPOS Association. This article gives three examples of how EPOS is used in member institutions of the association in Germany and the UK and concludes by explaining how EPOS might collaborate with two projects of the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) in Graz, FREPA/CARAP (Framework of Reference for Pluralistic Approaches) and EPOSTL (European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages).

Keywords: electronic European Language Portfolio (e-ELP:); EPOS (Elektronisches Europäisches Portfolio der Sprachen); EPOS association; self-assessment; pedagogic function of ELP; Language Council of Bremen; tutorial programme

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About the article

Bärbel Kühn

Bärbel Kühn is chair of the Sprachenrat Bremen (Bremen Language Council), and together with Jürgen Friedrich coordinator of the EPOS Association. She is coordinator of the Training and Consultancy activity of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe (ECML) Supporting local networks of e-Portfolios. Together with Maria Luisa Pérez Cavana she edited Perspectives from the European Language Portfolio. Learner Autonomy and self Assessment, London: Routledge 2012. Until her retirement in 2015 she was head of the Language Centre of the four public universities of Bremen (FZHB).

Published Online: 2016-10-06

Published in Print: 2016-10-01

Citation Information: Language Learning in Higher Education, Volume 6, Issue 2, Pages 335–354, ISSN (Online) 2191-6128, ISSN (Print) 2191-611X, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cercles-2016-0017.

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