The CercleS ELP: reflections on an Italian pilot project

This paper investigates the piloting of the CercleS version of the European Language Portfolio at the University of Padova. It begins by describing the university context in which the project took place, underlining both the urgent need for and the difficulty of attaining a higher degree of learner autonomy. It then looks at some of the problems encountered in familiarising learners with the ELP, in particular in regard to the levels of the Common European Framework of Reference (Council of Europe, 2001) and the concept of self-assessment. What follows is consideration of the fact that the ELP not only makes the language learning process more transparent to learners, but also gives teachers insight into the learner processes and preferences. Moreover, on an institutional level, ELP piloting can have the additional advantage of fostering collaboration between teachers of different languages, giving them the opportunity to discuss approaches to language teaching and learning, and attempting to answer the question posed by Little and Perclová (2001:66): “What can you do in your situation to develop an institutional approach to language learning and a sense that the whole institution is a language learning community?” Finally, the paper suggests some possible additions to the CercleS version of the ELP and puts forward proposals for future research projects.