Michael Byram
Guest Research Professor, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”
https://doi.org/10.53656/for2024-01-01
Abstract. The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) is one of the best known publications from the Council of Europe throughout the world (Byram and Parmenter 2012). It is known to the many kinds of readership for which it was designed: language teachers, assessment specialists, policy makers, inspectors, teacher educators and others including, not least, language learners. The latter are perhaps not aware of the publication but they do know about different levels and can describe their competence as A1 or B2 etc.
The evolution of the work of the Council of Europe to produce this and associated publications was chronicled by the person who led the teams over several decades, John Trim. I do not pretend to continue that account as I do not have the same overview and experience, but it is important to provide some further information and hope that at some point in the future, someone will write a full history and analysis of the Council of Europe work on language and language teaching1. This is therefore a personal view and will refer much to my own publications as a consequence; it does not claim to be a comprehensive account with full academic references2.
Keywords: Common European Framework of Reference for Languages; CEFR; Council of Europe; language; language teaching
