A DIGITAL EUROPEAN SELF-ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR STUDENT TEACHERS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES: THE EPOSTL

ABSTRACT

The acronym “EPOSTL” stands for the “European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages”, which is a digital self-assessment tool for students in foreign language teacher training programs across Europe. It builds on insights from the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) and the European Language Portfolio (ELP) as well as the European Profile for Language Teacher Education. It also helps student teachers of foreign languages to monitor and reflect on their experiences, performance and progress in the course of teacher education in a purposeful way. This study discussed and put forward some practical suggestions on the functions and the effectiveness of the EPOSTL in English Language Teaching (ELT) and German Language Teaching (GLT) departments in a state university in Turkey. The results of the study revealed that the use of the EPOSTL is helpful in developing student teachers’ metacognitive strategies as autonomous learners, which is a key factor in becoming teachers of foreign languages adopting the CEFR and the ELP principles in their classes.