Listening to Teachers: CEFR implementation in University Language Centres in Spain

Inglés

Gloria Luque Agulló

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1237-1549

Spain

Universidad de Jaén image/svg+xml

Departamento de Filología Inglesa.

Profesor Titular de Universidad

María Belén Díez-Bedmar

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9250-2224

Spain

Universidad de Jaén image/svg+xml

María Belén Díez-Bedmar is Associate Professor at the University of Jaén and serves as Director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Modern Languages at Universidad de Jaén. Her main research interests are the study of learner language, the compilation, analysis and exploitation of learner corpora, the use of the CEFR and the CV and the characterization of the language by L1 Spanish adolescents with emotional disorders or at risk of developing them. She is the PI of the project "Making the CEFR/CV more user-friendly: fine-tuning descriptors with Learner Corpus Research (LCR) results", Project PID2020-117041GA-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033. She has been member of the Learner Corpus Association board for eight years (December 2013- Jan 2022) and is co-chair of the panel "Teaching of languages and curricular design" in the Spanish Association of Applied Linguistics.

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Accepted: 2025-03-13

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Published: 2025-07-25

DOI: https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2025.21285
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Keywords:

University Language Centres, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, Companion Volume, teachers, survey, descriptors, competences, mediation, action-oriented approach

Supporting agencies:

Ministerio de Ciencia Innovación y Universidades

Abstract:

Despite the widespread reference to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and the Companion Volume (CV) in the language teaching curriculum in Spain, there is no information regarding teachers’ familiarity with the documents and their degree of implementation in University Language Centres, crucial for he  internationalization of universities. To bridge this gap in the literature, a questionnaire was designed, validated and administered to sixty-four teachers from 14 different Centres throughout Spain. Findings reveal gaps in the teachers’ knowledge regarding differences between the documents, specific issues related to the CV, and varying degrees of familiarity and use of competences and their descriptors. A further analysis of open questions also revealed those aspects which are missing in teacher training. The results obtained may be used to inform continuous teacher training to improve CEFR/CV implementation in University Language Centres in Spain, aligning their teaching practice to the documents.

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