Proficiency Guidelines

The ACTFL (American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages) proficiency guidelines describe performance in listening, speaking, reading, and writing a given language. Each description is a sample of a particular range of ability, and each level subsumes all previous ones, from the most simple to the most complex. What follows is a very simplified version of these guidelines.

• Speaking
  • Novice: Can ask questions or make statements involving learned material. Speech consists of learned utterances rather than of personalized, situationally adapted ones. Vocabulary centers on areas such as basic objects, places, and most common kinship terms.
  • Intermediate: Able to handle successfully a variety of uncomplicated, basic, and communicative tasks and social situations. Can talk simply about self and family members. Can ask and answer questions and participate in simple conversations The Intermediate-Mid speaker can generally be understood by sympathetic interlocutors. The Intermediate High is able to handle successfully most uncomplicated communicative tasks and social situations. Can initiate, sustain, and close a general conversation, but errors are evident. The Intermediate-High speaker can generally be understood, but repetition may still be required.
  • Advanced: Able to satisfy the requirements of a broad variety of everyday, school, and work situations. Can discuss concrete topics relating to particular interests and special fields of competence. There is emerging evidence of ability to support opinions, explain in detail, and hypothesize. The Advanced Plus speaker often shows fluency and ease of speech, but under the demands of Superior-level complex tasks, language may break down or prove inadequate.
  • Superior: Able to speak the language with sufficient accuracy to participate effectively in most formal and informal conversations on practical, social, professional, and abstract topics. Can discuss special fields of competence and interest with ease. Can support opinions and hypothesize.