Resources for language learning

The Language Centre incorporates resources specifically designed to support and promote language learning.

This Centre provides an environment, reserved to people who have access to our language courses, specifically designed for independent language learning (English, French, German and Italian). It allows you to access to a rich variety of learning activities to help or improve the different language skills (listening, reading, speaking, and pronunciation) as well as your accuracy (grammar, vocabulary …).

The EMA allows you:

  • to progress autonomously according to your needs, level and interests;
  • to progress at your own pace:
    • by using tools that allow you to analyse your needs, set objectives, assess your progress and discover new learning strategies;
    • by providing resources which are appropriate to your needs;

There are two ways to access the EMA:

The Multimedia Centre has 30 computers. You will have access to multimedia and audio resources accompanied by transcripts, exercises and answers, as well as reference material (grammar books, dictionaries, etc.). Someone will be available to help and support you.

For more information, log in to SWITCHaai and select the Resources tab (only for members of UNIL or EPFL).

Please note:

  • “Physical” multimedia material can only be used in the EMA (room CE 2 347), during its opening hours (for copyright reasons);
  • EMA material cannot be borrowed – it must stay in the Multimedia Centre;
  • Digital, paper or other resources in the EMA must not be copied.

PlurieL is a virtual environment specially designed for language learning in the context of the Language Centre. It focuses on the learner and aims in particular to promote autonomy in language learning. PlurieL offers search facilities, access to pedagogical activities and the European Language Portfolio (including the learning journal, interactive skills referencing and the language passport), messages and personalized advice from the teaching staff, help and guidance documents and the possibility to carry out group activities. The PlurieL platform is available 24H/7D to the entire EPFL community.

Log into PlurieL.

The Language Centre recommends the utilisation of the European Language Portfolio for lifelong learning.

The European Language Portfolio (Higher Education version) of the Council of Europe Council for Languages (ELC/CEL) allows you to document and highlight your plurilingual profile in a comprehensible, complete and internationally comparable way.

  • The Portfolio is a personal, accumulative record of your tasks, tests, certificates, self-assessment checklists, etc. to illustrate to a third party, in both a comprehensible and varied manner, what you are capable of doing in the different languages in your profile.
  • It permits you to document all your language competencies and intercultural experiences acquired within or outside formal educational settings.
  • It contains tools to guide you in taking responsibility for and planning your lifelong learning process.
  • The ELP can be used for all languages learned and in any institutional environment.

The European Language Portfolio is a project of the Council of Europe, an intergovernmental organisation of 43 member states which pursues the following educational objectives:

  • promote individual plurilingualism and dialogue between culture
  • facilitate mobility in Europe
  • strengthen and preserve cultural diversity
  • encourage lifelong language learning

The basic French-English version of the European language Portfolio. Higher Education / European Language Portfolio. Higher Education for the European Council for languages (ELC/CEL) is published as a ring binder.

In order to guarantee the recognition of the multilingualism of the ELP at an international level, the publication concept of the CEL/ELC’s European language Portfolio foresees that the freely – downloadable existing translations in German and Spanish (see below) be inserted into the original ring binder.