▲ USING ELP IN P.E.

In my personal opinion ELP (European Language Portafolio) could be very useful in Physical Education for teaching English as a foreign language. In Secondary School students are beginning to see that English could be useful in their life if they have the opportunity to use it.

If you teach using CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) lessons, your students can discover that English is not only a subject and if they complete their own ELP while they are learning, they could be conscious about their learning, their proficiency and their own progress.

The ELP has three components. First, the Language passport, which describes the learner’s proficiency and competences. Second, the Language biography, which facilitates planning, reflection and assessment through the descriptors for each language proficiency level. And finally the Dossier in which the learners collect all the evidence of their developing proficiency.

It’s important to take into account the advantages and disadvantages of using ELP with my groups.

The three components of ELP make that the learners be more aware of their own learning. This is important because they are becoming autonomous and responsible, and it promotes their autonomy.

If students are aware of their aims and which the steps to follow are, they are going to be more motivated and they are going to be able to  take the control of their own learning. Before, during and after the learning activities the learners are made aware of the goals for learning and the competence they have to acquire.

Moreover something that could help you is that the descriptors are very concrete and easy to apply. And if your students know the descriptor at the beginning of the lesson they will know which the linguistic aim to get is. So they can take it into account during the lesson and it’s easy to learn something to them if they know which  the aim is.

But some limitations are that truly working with ELP can reduce your time at the beginning. It depends on the way you use it and if it's worth doing so. At the beginning you have to explain in detail how the ELP works, and illustrate its use. You have to be sure that your students understand everything.

But when students are already familiar with these, they prepare themselves for the activities and they evaluate themselves. So they do it alone and you don’t spend a lot of time helping them.

So it seems to be very positive and useful, but remember it depends on your students and your resources. 

You can watch this video if you want to learn more about the ELP