Der Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die theoretischen Grundlagen des Companion Volume with New Descriptors zum "Gemeinsamen europäischen Referenzrahmens für Sprachen" und beschreibt die Entwicklung neuer Konzepte sowie die methodische Umsetzung ihrer empirischen Validierung. Dargestellt werden vor allem die Bereiche 'Mediation', 'Phonologie' und 'Gebärdensprache'. Weiterhin enthält der Companion Deskriptoren für junge Lernende auf dem Niveau "Pre-A1". Einige didaktische Konsequenzen dieser Entwicklungen werden ebenfalls erörtert.
This paper gives an overview of the development of the CEFR Companion Volume, with its expanded version of the CEFR illustrative descriptors, which took place in five distinct sub-projects using three different approaches. Firstly, the existing CEFR illustrative scales were expanded by incorporating other validated and calibrated CEFR-based descriptors, particularly at the C levels and at A1. Secondly came the conceptualisation and empirical development of descriptor scales in separate subprojects for three different areas: (i) mediation and related concepts, including reactions to literature, online interaction and plurilingual/pluricultural competence, (ii) phonology, and (iii) sign language, each following a mixed-method developmental research design based on the one used to develop the original descriptors. In addition, the project produced a collation of existing CEFR-based descriptors for younger learners, grouped for two age groups: 7-10 and 11- 14. The paper concludes by discussing potential relevance of the new descriptors for language education.