C1 CAN-DOs ACCORDING TO THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

The Council of Europe has written a document called CEFR, an abbreviation of "Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching and Assessment". It  was created as a framework to describe abilities in any language. These abilities would range from knowing just some words to using the language almost perfectly. In this sense, the descriptors specify the progressive mastery that students make of each linguistic skill. Even though these specifications set out in the document might seem excessively broad, they have been translated into some 40 languages and are the common reference levels most teachers and linguistic experts use to design their syllabuses and examinations. Rather than use number of hours, modules or qualifications, the Common European descriptors tell us what learners can actually do with the language.

To make it easier for my C1.2 students to understand what they can do in reading, listening, speaking and writing at this stage, we did an activity in class asking each other the CAN-DO questions the Common European Framework suggests. After the survey, we found out that most of their weaknesses lie with the speaking and grammar accuracy. Let´s see what we get at the end of the course.