Postgraduate English: What Guidelines and Descriptors according to the CEFR?

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) has made a highly significant breakthrough in the language teaching profession and practice, outlining the different levels of language competence and communicative effectiveness across languages. However, despite the positive effect of the CEFR in terms of clear learning pathways diversified into levels of proficiency, it appears to be mostly concerned with general English and fails to take into account the features of specialised discourse or Content and Language Integrated learning (CLIL). Moreover, its mainstream use in the school curricula has associated it with “general English” and meant it has been largely ignored in academic and specialised language teaching. The present paper sets out to investigate the relationship between a postgraduate course of English for management and public administration and the general and specific guidelines provided by the Common European Framework of Reference. Preliminary findings suggest that a more attentive and unbiased analysis could disclose its full potential even in graduate and postgraduate teaching