A tip for your tongue: CEFR

Many of you no doubt have an app with a little green bird on your mobile telephones, and all of you will surely have heard the chime for a correct answer, perhaps on public transport: Duolingo. The platform for language learning has taken the world by storm. It offers courses in 42 languages to over 34 million daily users, an astonishing figure. (Strange fact - there are more learners of Irish on Duolingo than speakers of Irish in Ireland.)

However, how many of you know about the connection between that app. and the Council of Europe? Indeed, that Duolingo's assessment of learners is based on the Council of Europe's work?

Past imperfect

Back in the 1980s things were different for language learners. The teaching profession had gone through some fads - older readers will probably remember the obsession with listening and repetition in language labs, which was thought to be a kind of magic key to unlocking fluency. Gradually, however, new approaches were coming to the fore. The issue remained how to describe and measure fluency.

In the late 1980s the Council of Europe embarked on its Language learning for European citizenship project. As today, the organisation asserts that, in Secretary General Alain Berset's words, "teaching and learning of multiple languages is not a cultural luxury, but a political necessity" in order to reinforce democracy and promote tolerance.

Present paradigm

The outcome of this was ultimately the Common European Framework of reference for languages (CEFR), published in 2001. This is a set of descriptors of language use that indicate language proficiency, grading each from A1 to C2. The aim of the framework is to aid linguistic and cultural diversity, promote plurilingual and intercultural education, reinforce the right to quality education for all, and enhance intercultural dialogue, social inclusion and democracy.

The use of these standards spread quickly initially across all Europe's plethora of languages, including sign languages, and was soon found around the world in countries like Canada and China. Today, as well as the original European version that you're familiar with, local versions of CEFR are in use across the globe in countries as diverse as Mexico and Malaysia.

Future unconditional

A lot of us writing our New Year's resolutions this year will have a voice in the back of our heads saying "this year let's finally get our German/Polish/Portuguese/Klingon skills up to scratch" or perhaps "why not learn a new language?" This will be our year.

In January, as you browse prospectuses, or research Turkish for new learners, or even look at the language programme of certain well-known apps., it's worth remembering how this small Council of Europe framework has become the global standard.

Setting standards. That's what we do.

European Day of Languages 2025

Duolingo on CEFR

Common European Framework of reference for languages: learning, teaching, assessment - companion volume