ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF USING THE ELP

Before explaining the advantages and disadvantages i`m going to do a brief explanation about the European Language Portfolio (ELP), because I believe that is important understand what important is the rol about this tool in education.

The ELP is a document in which those who are learning or have learned one or more languages can record and reflect on their language learning and intercultural experiences and it’s composed of: language Passport, language dossier and language biography.

            The ELP supports the development of learner autonomy, plurilingualism and intercultural awareness. Its main aims are:

• to help learners give shape and coherence to their experience of learning and using languages other than their first language
• to motivate learners by acknowledging their efforts to extend and diversify their language skills at all levels
• to provide a record of the linguistic and cultural skills they have acquired (to be consulted, for example, when they are moving to a higher learning level or seeking employment at home or abroad).

For all this I can say that ELP has more advantages than disadvantages, but coming up next I show you:

ADVANTAGES

           The ELP helps making the language learning process more transparent by involving the learner in the decision making, the goal-setting and the evaluation of learning achievements. In this way the ELP:

·      Helps to develop language learning and intercultural skills

·      Facilities mobility

·      Encourages lifelong learning of languages

            This kind of advantages are so adaptable in my subject (Physical Education) because it´s an interactive subject where students can work in groups, do self-assessment and in pairs, and s subject that it’s more important the process and improvement that the result. Obviously both aims are too related and the ELP permit me to work in a mainstreaming way because I can adapt my exercises an integrate in them different aspects about ELP to get that my students work of autonomously and improving their knowledge in a different language through physical education contents.

            DISADVANTAGES

            The use of ELP, however, has some disadvantages or problems when I implement in my students. The our main problem: to accustom students to work in a different way with a time of more or less rigorous delivery of the proposed activities and the subsequent corrections; perform new activities, involving in most cases more critical view and formation of thought to which they were not accustomed, following the ideas of the Council of Europe to promote education for life , tolerance and diversity. They also found it difficult to write their own reflections on their learning in the newspapers, but we can see in these opinions always manage to do so, sooner or later.

Among the negatives for the teacher, include the effort involved in preparing more activities given the weight they have in the final grade, with a further reflection of linguistic, cultural and educational objectives, on one hand, and greater planning and organizing classes on the other. We must not forget more hours of redressing daily activities, check corrections and correct the portfolio at the end of the semester or year.