The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:

learning, teaching, assessment (CEFR) authoritatively summarizes the outcomes of many years of work by the Council of Europe on the description and scaling of language use and ability. In addition, it takes the important step of providing practical suggestions for the implementation of the CEFR scales in a variety of educational uses. As such, this book offers the primary resource for readers interested in language learning, teaching, and assessment from a policy-level European perspective. More specifically, the CEFR is intended to assist language teachers, learners, and others (e.g., assessment devel-opers) to reflect on and better understand what constitutes language learning and use, on the one hand, and to facilitate cross-European communication about levels of language learning and use, on the other. This book warrants careful attention by a wide audience of language testers for two primary reasons. First, it presents the results of what has been, without doubt, the most comprehensive and broad-based effort to create holistic and analytic scales of language use and language competence, and to employ sound empirical methods for deriving useful descriptors of the same. Secondly, it links those scales and descriptors to specific uses and mechanisms for assessment, and it provides key recommendations for their implementation. For readers less aware of recent European events, a brief history lesson is perhaps in order. The Council of Europe (COE) was founded in 1949 with the purpose of promoting greater pan-European unity, defending human rights, and fostering a shared cultural identity among its members, which currently total 49 states