Brian North
Descriptors for mediation, an undervalued concept
Since its publication in 2001 the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), translated into 40 Languages, has been used worldwide as a vehicle to foster change in Second Language Education (SLE). Almost two decades later, the Council of Europe commissioned an international 3-year project to extend the CEFR illustrative descriptors, and in particular to provide descriptors for mediation. Mediation, as presented in the new descriptors, encompasses both relational and cognitive processes such as creating the space and conditions for communication and/or learning, constructing and co-constructing new meaning, and/or conveying received meaning, whilst adapting input in order to facilitate understanding.