1975年出版的《入门标准》（《Les Niveaux seuils》）曾经在对外法语教育界（FLE）引起了关于法语教学法的热烈讨论。上个世纪末，欧洲议会编写出版的《欧洲共同语言框架》再一次使教学法成为争论的焦点。这样的“回归”原因何在？伴随语言定位的变化，外语教育面临新的挑战：对提高教育效率的需求、可信的评估体系的缺失、多语言跨文化的新背景等。《欧洲共同语言框架》遵循“能力学习法”语言教学原则，对教育目标进行等级分类。虽然它推动了多语言跨文化教育的发展，但并没有催生新的教学法。《欧洲共同语言框架》旨在为外语教育提供灵活的评估参考，而不是以统一规范的身份将均一固定的标准强加给不同的教育环境和多样的语言教学实践。

The publication of Les Niveaux Seuils in 1975 was followed by heated discussions about the methodologies of teaching French as a foreign language. Towards the end of the 20th century, the Council of Europe produced le Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues (CECR, 1996, 2001) , which brought the pedagogical issue back under extensive examination, but in new lights of the efficiency demand, the awareness of the absence of reliable systems for evaluation, and the emerging multi-lingual and cross-cultural context. Based on the “competence approach” principle, CECR defines and classifies different goals of teaching French as a foreign language. While it has been promoted as a flexible, accommodating frame of reference for evaluation, CECR is not supposed to impose a uniform standard upon the whole variety of educational contexts and multilingual situations.