The European Portfolio (ELP)

The European Language Portfolio (ELP) was developed by the Language Policy Unit of the Council of Europe:

• to support the development of learner autonomy, plurilingualism and intercultural awareness and competence;
• to allow users to record their language learning achievements and their experience of learning and using languages

The European Language Portfolio is a personal document that has three parts:

1. A language passport
2. A language biography
3. A dossier

In this way the European Language Portfolio:

• Helps to develop language learning and intercultural skills
• Facilitates educational and vocational mobility
• Encourages lifelong learning of languages
• Contributes to the promotion of democratic citizenship in Europe

With it we can learn more and better any language and helps us to understand and appreciate the linguistic and cultural diversity we have in Europe.

For me, it is a tool that I can use to improve my knowledge and skills about learning languages. We can also use it in different classes or schools outside the classroom or on our own. But it is desirable that it let us note in the relevant experiences of linguistic and cultural learning that we have, so what we learn in class and on the street.

In my opinion it can be useful to:

• know the level we have in every language, according to an international scale
• determine the learning objectives and note the progress that we get
• aware of the way we learn and increase it
• learn, improve and respect the linguistic and cultural differences between us and our peers or between different groups of people.

But the main objective of the portfolio should be to encourage independent learning of languages and intercultural experiences. That is, to help us become better learners of all languages and cultures so we can learn more effectively, conscious and satisfactory manner.

In conclusion, we can become more autonomous, active and friendly and better able to learn on our own.