The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and its Background: A Case Study of Cultural Politics and Educational Influences

John L.M. Trim

The Common European Framework for Languages: learning, teaching and assessment (CEFR) was published, simultaneously in English and French – the two official languages of the Council of Europe – in February 2001 as a contribution to the European Year of Languages. Many of the values and attitudes which it embodies can be traced back at least to the Protestant reformers of the 16th century, with their concern for mass literacy and direct access to the Bible as the basis for independent thought and action, and particularly to the ideas of the great Czech educational thinker, Jan Amos Komensky (Comenius) (1592–1670). Comenius saw his contemporaries in a war-torn Europe as trapped by ignorance in a labyrinth of appearances. Escape would only come through education, to make people aware of the unity and harmony of God's creation, into which human life should fit with spontaneous creativity, free from violence. Education should be a lifelong process, open to all, both men and women, on equal terms. Comenius saw language education as fundamental, starting with mother tongue literacy and oracy, then going on to the language of a neighbouring people and then to a language of universal communication, which in his time was still Latin. Language learning should not be a matter of formal exercises, but should be built upon sensory experience – where possible the experience and handling of real objects. Where not, as is most often the case in the world of the noindentlassroom, pictorial images must suffice. His Orbis Sensualium Pictus (the World of the Senses in Pictures, 1639) was not only a richly illustrated presentation of the vocabulary (words, phrases and sentences) of whatever language it was translated into, but also a guide to the exploration of the harmonious, divinely ordered world, from God, through the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, to man, first as a biological, then a social and then a moral and spiritual being, and thus back to God. Orbis Pictus, which remained popular in successive printings and adaptations for over a century (it was the only illustrated children's book available to Goethe as a boy), was essentially an illustrated version of Janua Linguarum Reserata (The Gate of Languages Unlocked, 1631). In a striking image, Comenius compared the progress of a language learner in stages, from infancy to full maturity, to the exploration of a palace, dealing successively with the skeletal structure of a language (vestibulum), the substantial body of the language and associated areas of knowledge and experience (janua), stylistic refinements bringing life and colour (atrium), then the works of more suitable and accessible authors (palatio) and finally the unlimited wealth of writings in the arts and sciences, to which language learning gave access (thesaurus). This was perhaps the first attempt to provide a comprehensive framework for language learning. In Didactica Magna (1633–38), and later Novissima linguarum methodus (1644–46), Comenius elaborated his educational theories in a systematic way, expanding simple but powerful concepts (language learning should be speedy, solid and enjoyable) into 187 axioms, many of which foreshadow contemporary thinking. The role of the learner is central. That of the teacher is to organise, motivate and direct learning in a disciplined, cooperative atmosphere. This demands the highest standards of morality, knowledge and understanding, and should be accorded a correspondingly high social status. Comenius' breadth of vision, humanity and common sense were an inspiration four centuries after his birth.

A more direct influence on the development of the CEFR was the great reform movement at the end of the 19th century, which was based on the Neogrammarian revolution in linguistics in the 1870s. The explosive development of comparative philology in the earlier part of the century had as its aim the reconstruction of the prehistory of the Indo-European languages. Around 1870, emanating from the University of Leipzig, the focus of scholarship shifted to the investigation of the historical processes leading to the present-day condition of languages. It became clear that the forces for change lay in the everyday use of spoken language. Written language was shown to be conservative, concealing the processes of change at least until it was established. Following the publication of Edouard Sievers' Grundzüge der Lautphysiologie (1871), phonetics became a powerful noindentool for the observation, notation and analysis of language in everyday use, an essential basis for understanding the dynamics of language change. Sound change was not arbitrary, but seemed to follow 'laws' that were analogous to those being discovered in the natural sciences:...