The CEFR is one of the Council of Europe’s key instruments for promoting plurilingual and intercultural education. As well as being an internationally recognised framework of reference for language proficiency, it embodies a broader educational vision that values all languages in a learner’s plurilingual repertoire and fosters intercultural dialogue, learner agency, inclusion and democratic participation in society.

Through its action-oriented, plurilingual and intercultural approach, the CEFR supports teachers in setting meaningful communicative goals based on its proficiency descriptors. By linking planning, teaching and assessment, it also helps create coherence in language curricula.

Since the CEFR was published in 2001, its key concepts—including learners as social agents, mediation and plurilingualism—have continued to evolve in response to societal changes such as increased mobility, migration and the use of technology. These developments led to the publication of the CEFR Companion Volume in 2020.

Despite its broader educational vision, the CEFR is often reduced to its proficiency levels, with an exclusive focus on testing and certification. This narrow interpretation has contributed to persistent misconceptions, often with negative consequences. The roundtable centred on an identified list of common misconceptions and their repercussions.

Participants included specialists in language policy and curricula, teachers and teacher educators, representatives of certification bodies, and employers. They considered the CEFR’s wider role in guiding policy, curriculum design, teaching and assessment, and supporting plurilingual and intercultural education.

Among the misconceptions discussed were the use of a single CEFR level in migration requirements; the assumption that achieving “native speaker” proficiency is the goal of language learning; and the use of CEFR labels for courses or materials that may not reflect the framework’s educational approach.

Participants reviewed illustrative scenarios and developed further examples drawn from their national contexts. They also considered how to refine the list of misconceptions, communicate key messages to wider audiences, and identify possible actions for policymakers, teacher educators and assessment bodies.

The roundtable’s findings, including the list of misconceptions and their repercussions, are expected to be shared with a wider audience at a webinar in 2027.