A total of 39 participants, including delegates from ECML member states, associate partners, and other guests, joined the project team for the two-day workshop of the project Towards a Common European Framework for Language Teachers. The participants, who were employees of language schools, institutions running teacher education programmes, and ministries of education, discussed current challenges in teacher education and professional development in their contexts and others. 

The useful discussion of the draft online Guide to instruments and frameworks describing teacher competences for language education will help finalise the website. Valuable feedback was also received on a draft Overview of the language-related competences of different kinds of teachers. This Overview, which may form the basis of a future framework or other instruments for use by educators, teachers, and other stakeholders, contains competence descriptions in the areas of pedagogy, language competences, guiding principles of language education, but also for dimensions such as cooperation with other stakeholders, and teachers’ career-long learning.

The participants’ active contributions and their critical feedback on the products and aims of the project will enable the team to provide a qualified opinion on the need for a future framework before the end of the project in 2019.

The ECML project team:
Lukas Bleichenbacher (project coordinator), Francis Goullier, Anna Schröder-Sura, Richard Rossner

• Project website "Towards a Common European Framework of Reference for language teachers" (2016-2019): English - French