Working with Teachers to Apply CEFR Can-Do Descriptors in the Classroom

Aligning a curriculum with the CEFR can be a challenging process. While CEFR alignment depends on a balance of top-down and bottom-up approaches (Schmidt et al., 2017: 24), successful alignment mostly depends on buy-in and implementation by instructors (Nagai et al., 2020: 144). To facilitate this, an institutional professional development (PD) initiative is needed, yet such a top-down initiative contradicts the instructors’ need for “freedom from control of others,” a prerequisite for becoming sufficiently autonomous to effectively implement CEFR-based language pedagogy (Nagai et al. 2020: 145). Ultimately, such curriculum reform requires instructors to make a major commitment that is akin to developing a new professional identity (Jiang & Zhang, 2021). This chapter explores how instructors and I navigated a CEFR alignment process as we participated in PD workshops and introduced CEFR illustrative descriptors in our classrooms. After the CARM planning stage, Cycle 1 of the action stage consisted of three workshops to familiarize around 25 full-time instructors with illustrative descriptors and their use in the classroom. Five instructors volunteered to be observed as they used the descriptors in their classes. In Cycle 2, the instructors refined their use of the descriptors and shared their experiences with colleagues in two more workshops. In the final stage of CARM, critical review, I evaluated the data collected from a questionnaire administered after each of the workshops, the observations of classes, and my discussions with the instructors. This chapter concludes by reflecting on the data to guide the future of this project and similar projects. For example, attitudes towards the CEFR workshops were positive with steady development of understanding among instructors, while willingness to actually apply that understanding was low among particularly senior instructors, suggesting revisions to current PD strategies. Those who did apply the CEFR competently used illustrative descriptors from course guidelines to guide selection and design of classroom activities. They intuitively developed CEFR-based rubrics for goal setting and assessment, but their abilities to design rubrics and to adapt descriptors varied. A final area requiring development was explaining the CEFR explicitly to students, which all participants in this study either avoided or struggled with.