The Council of Europe (CoE) has recently started an online Platform offering resources and references to facilitate and promote plurilingual and intercultural education.
After conducting preliminary studies on language needs and policy issues and producing reference documents such as the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages taught as “foreign” languages, the CoE’s Language Policy Division proposes a new tool, in the form of a Platform, enabling CoE member states to benefit from the experience and expertise of other member states in formulating their curricula in the field of language teaching. This mainly relates to languages taught as subjects in their own right and/or used for the teaching of other subjects, including regional or minority languages in some education systems.
The central project of the Platform is “Languages of Schooling” which includes a focus on
(i) the language as a school subject;
(ii) the language as a medium of teaching and learning across the curriculum;
(iii) possible convergences between the language(s) of school education and modern (‘foreign’) languages with the aim of promoting a coherent system for plurilingual learning.
The Platform offers a system of definitions, points of reference, descriptions and descriptors, studies and good practices which member states are invited to consult and use in support of their policy. The CoE expects that this will promote equal access to quality education according to each Member State’s own needs, resources and educational culture.