Guidance for teachers of English on how to link their lessons to the Common European Framework of Reference is not intended to produce uniform results
We don't need bureaucrats to tell us what to teach. This cry has been heard at conferences and in staffrooms ever since the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) was published. Now, the British Council and Eaquals, the pan-European association of language training providers, have joined together to create a Core Inventory for General English. So is this another example of the bureaucrats telling us what we should be doing in the classroom?
Our answer, as co-authors of the Core Inventory, is an emphatic no. The Inventory does not tell anyone what they should teach. To say so is to underestimate the levels of professionalism and expertise found among English language teachers. Teachers will decide what to teach based on negotiations with students, needs analyses and the requirements of local and national syllabuses and curricula. So if the Inventory is not a prescriptive straitjacket that tells teachers what to teach, what is it?
The Inventory represents the core of general English to be taught at CEFR levels A1 to C1. As the name suggests, it is the core; it is not the whole. Each language point appears at the level(s) at which we considered it to be of most relevance to the learner in the classroom. The Inventory provides guidance and support for those who are involved in course design but teachers and syllabus writers will define the total content of a course. The Inventory lists grammar, vocabulary, discourse markers and functions. It includes exemplar sentences (exponents) for each language point. The Inventory is completed by examples of scenarios that can be used for both teaching and assessment.
Teachers should not think they only have to teach what is in the Inventory or that they must teach everything that is in it. The exponents should be adapted to the learners' context by changing names, activities and so on. The scenarios are only examples and are there to act as the starting point for discussion and the writing of CEFR-based scenarios with colleagues and students.
One of the criticisms often levelled at the CEFR is that it stifles creativity. So the Inventory is surely another step in this process of standardisation? In years to come all English courses for adults will be reduced to the contents of the Core Inventory with nothing that is not listed in it being taught. Around the world any course labelled as B2 will be run along exactly the same lines.
We really cannot imagine such a future. Learners will always have specific reasons for learning English and will look to their teachers for guidance and support as to how to best achieve their learning goals. So every classroom will continue to be a unique environment that reflects the needs and knowledge of those contained within it. The Inventory does not alter the fundamental nature of the classroom.
The CEFR is a fine document but what does it mean for the classroom? Many teachers have asked this question since the document was published in 2001. This does not take into account the primary aim of the CEFR: to encourage reflection on current practice in relation to the specification of what is taught and the assessment of the successful learning of that content. In fact, the CEFR is relevant to all aspects of English language teaching. The Core Inventory helps both students and teachers to make the CEFR applicable to the classroom. The abstract becomes concrete and we can clearly see the language points that make up the core of each CEFR level.
The British Council and Eaquals have published the Inventory but, rather than writing something totally new, we have held a mirror up to the profession and have recorded what we have seen. The true authors of the Inventory are experienced teachers who have high levels of expertise in working with the CEFR. The project has received input from hundreds of teachers. The initial data collection and analysis drew on a variety of sources. These included teacher surveys, a coursebook survey, and syllabuses from centres of excellence in implementing the CEFR into courses.
So the Inventory is not telling teachers what to teach; rather it is describing what teachers are teaching with the intention of informing discussion and providing teachers and syllabus writers with guidance.
The question remains: how can one document be applicable to all learners of English? It would be impossible to provide a universal list of language points that is of relevance to all learners wherever they are in the world. This is why we have not aimed to do so. We have documented examples of good practice and offer these to the wider audience of English language practitioners. They will then decide on how to make the Inventory relevant to their situations. It places each language point in the place where it is of most relevance to the classroom. It does not contain information about when and how language points should be recycled. These decisions are left to syllabus writers and teachers. The Inventory does not offer guidance on how language points should be introduced, practised or developed. Teachers will make such decisions, as they always have done, taking into account the local context and the needs of their students.
The Core Inventory of General English will help to make the CEFR tangible and provide support and guidance for teachers and syllabus designers. It will aid learners to make the connections between classroom activities and real world needs. It does not tell people what to teach.
Susan Sheehan is learning and teaching adviser at the British Council and a joint author, with Brian North and Angeles Ortega Calvo, of the Core Inventory for General English, which is published on teachingenglish.org.uk and eaquals.org this month