Introduction

Dear website users,
You have entered the website of the European Language Portfolio and most likely you have a question what the European Language Portfolio is and what it is used for.

The Council of Europe, its Language Policy Division, gives special attention to language learning and teaching, evaluation and self-evaluation of language competences. Following the provisions of the language policy of the Council of Europe (aiming for better mutual understanding of European citizens, developing personal plurilingualism for life, ability to learn languages independently) language portfolios are being developed in Europe aiming to help the learners to self-assess their language competences and to learn languages more effectively. Portfolios are developed for learners of different age groups and contribute to clearly characterise language competences of the learners which is very important in nowadays mobile society.

European Language Portfolio for the students of 9–12 forms is being implemented in Lithuanian educational system, two portfolios – for adults and students of 5–8 forms – are developed in Vilnius University (the ESF project “The development of evaluation and self-evaluation system of communication competences”). Lately electronic versions of European Language Portfolio were developed in some European countries (the Netherlands, Germany, Norway, etc.). Following the experience of these countries, the electronic versions of the portfolios are considerably more effective as they provide more opportunities for a teacher to use the time of the lesson better, as well as enable students to learn individually, plan their learning activities, develop intercultural competences and motivate students to learn different languages. The electronic version of the Portfolio will enable language learners to more effectively implement the main functions (pedagogical and reporting) of the Portfolio. We expect that the development of the electronic version of the European Language Portfolio in Lithuania will contribute to the more effective language learning, evaluation and self-evaluation in all age groups of the learners.

This website of the European Language Portfolio is created for students and adults learning languages. We bid to log in and start using this website. Here you will learn to self-assess your language competences; tell what languages you have been learning at school or other institutions; write whether you like or do not like learning languages; describe your visits to other countries, the languages you have used, new cultures you have got to know, etc. 

You will find three parts of the European Language Portfolio on the website: Language Biography, Language Passport and Dossier.

LANGUAGE BIOGRAPHY
The Language Biography aims to encourage students to understand their learning process better, to plan it and to self-assess their progress. In this part you will find Self-assessment checklists which will help you find out how well you know the languages. In the part Language Learning and Intercultural Experiences you will be able to write what interesting things you experienced while learning language and communicating in your native or orther countries. By completing the part Learning to Learn you will be able to realize how you learn languages at school or other institutions, what you like most or what you do not like and also you will find out the best way to learn languages.
You will have to fill in this part in order to list the most interesting and important experiences as well as self-assess your language competences.

LANGUAGE PASSPORT
This is a document to record your language competences (according to the levels of the Common European Framework for languages). Here you will enter documents about your language learning achievements, certificates, diplomas, awards, etc.
You will have to fill in this part only at some points of time, for instance, at the end of the school year.

DOSSIER
This is the evidence of your learning progress. Files list is designed for you to collect electronic files illustrating your proficiency in the chosen language, your experiences, impressions, for instance, video and sound recordings, photos, emails, compositions, etc. You can constantly update your Dossier replacing poorer samples with better ones. List of Certificates and Diplomas can be used to include your acknowledgements, diplomas, awards and other documents showing your proficiency in the language, etc.

The following eELP have been studied in the design process:
Dutch site of the European Language Portfolio (ELP) (http://www.europeestaalportfolio.nl)
EAQUALS-ALTE European Language Portfolio (eELP) (
http://www.eaquals.org
)

We expect you will enjoy working with the Portfolio.
Good luck!