Proficiency

These are the  ACTFL proficiency guidelines in French and other languages. Below you will find examples of the various proficiency levels. More Information and for citations from this document, please refer to ACTFL's website and The OPI Familiarization Manual Online.

END OF YEAR EXPECTATIONS

Speaking Topics by Level (An Example)

Novice Low (Français 1 and Español 1)

• Basic greeting
• Hello/goodbye
• Give identity
• Name things in my environment (that's a chair, that's a teacher, that's…)

Novice Mid (Français 1 and Español 1)

• family basics
• getting to know you basics
• speak in one or two word answers mostly
• repeat and parrot back words

Novice High (Français 2 and Español 2)

• basic personal information
• naming basic objects
• immediate needs
• can ask simple questions
• house
• where you live
• where things are located
• routines, schedules
• food
• family
• school
• past-times, hobbies
• Multiple words, mostly sentences

Intermediate Low (Français 3 and Español 3)

• simple needs (ordering food, simple purchases)
• city, neighborhood description
• house, inside/outside description
• directions
• shopping situations
• food, eating, recipes, etc.
• talk about self and family, pets, description, relationships
• school, schedule, description
• daily activities like past-times, sports, and hobbies (where, when, how often)
• preferences
• friends, age, name, description
• movies, books, media, summary, opinions
• stories (past, present, future) with errors
• create and ask ?'s
• culture, expressions, etc.

Intermediate Mid (Français 4 and Español 4)

• past, present, future weekend narration with some errors
• information about self, family
• home
• daily activities
• interests and preferences
• physical and social needs
• ordering, buying food
• shopping
• travel, booking, interactions, reservations, directions, and lodging
• ask and answer questions
• have to repeat or rephrase things
• friends, age, name, description
• movies, books, media, summary, opinions
• Still more sentence level answers

Intermediate High (Français AP and Español AP)

• past, present, future weekend narration with few errors
• information about self, family
• home
• daily activities
• interests and preferences
• physical and social needs
• ordering, buying food
• shopping
• travel, booking, interactions, reservations, directions, and lodging
• ask and answer questions
• have to repeat or rephrase things
• friends, age, name, description
• movies, books, media, summary, opinions
• work, school
• recreational activities
• more detailed descriptions (Paragraph level)

Novice Low (French 1)

Speakers at the Novice Low sublevel have no real functional ability and, because of their pronunciation, may be unintelligible. Given adequate time and familiar cues, they may be able to exchange greetings, give their identity, and name a number of familiar objects from their immediate environment. They are unable to perform functions or handle topics pertaining to the Intermediate level, and cannot therefore participate in a true conversational exchange.

Rationale

The tester begins the interview asking Julie, “Comment allez-vous,” twice. Julie does not understand the question. At first she answers, “Je m’appelle Julie,” and the second time she does not respond at all. The tester uses a choice question next, asking, “Où êtes-vous—à la maison? À l’université?” Julie responds, “Je ne comprends pas.” In this level of interview, all questions are a series of level checks and probes to stretch the interviewee beyond his/her comfort zone. Closed-ended questions soliciting one word answers are used.

When asked, “Etes-vous étudiante?” Julie answers, “Oui.” The tester tries another open-ended question, “Quels cours avez-vous?” Julie can answer, “bleu.” When asked about colors again, Julie gives only “bleu” one more time. As tester alternates between “desperate dozen” questions and yes/no questions, the only language Julie is able to produce is “oui,” “non,” “maison,” “ne comprends pas” and “bleu.” The tester moves to close the interview trying to make Julie as comfortable as possible, asking her if she can count. But Julie is not able to say anything and the tester thanks her and ends the interview.

Julie M. is a Novice Low in French. She can say only a few words and has no real functional ability in the language. She does not understand much of what the tester asks and cannot participate in a true conversational exchange.

Novice Mid (End of French 1)

Speakers at the Novice Mid sublevel communicate minimally by using a number of isolated words and memorized phrases limited by the particular context in which the language has been learned. When responding to direct questions, they may say only two or three words at a time or give an occasional stock answer. They pause frequently as they search for simple vocabulary or attempt to recycle their own and their interlocutor’s words. Novice Mid speakers may be understood with difficulty even by sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to dealing with non-natives. When called on to handle topics and perform functions associated with the Intermediate level, they frequently resort to repetition, words from their native language, or silence.

Rationale

The tester begins the warm-up by asking about the weather. Cristina answers with some difficulty indicating a low level of proficiency. The tester continues to ask questions about where she lives. Cristina does not understand and the tester then rephrases the question as a choice question to make it easier for her. The tester tries to get a conversation going by asking her other simple questions about her job, her family etc. Cristina is only able to answer in monosyllables, searching for words, and occasionally coming up with a sentence.

The tester continues the iterative process of level checks and probes to elicit as much language as possible from Julie. When asked to describe her house, she is able to only respond with “ Ma maison est grande mais une grand pas pour 6 ou 7 ans. C'est rouge.” She is not able to list rooms in the house, and cannot respond to questions about whether she cooks or what she cooks.

The tester tries to elicit another list asking if she knows the days of the week. She does know 4. When asked further about her leisure time activities, Julie is unable to respond. The tester then asks about restaurants she prefers and she is able to produce 2 words. The tester continues to ask questions on other topics but again, Julie struggles to provide any information. At best she provides a single or incomplete sentence or phrase. She pauses, shows signs of nervousness and breakdown, and often resorts to using English words.

The tester transitions to the wind down asking her what she will do after the interview. Julie answers with just a few words. Julie is rated Novice Mid. She communicates minimally and with difficulty, using only a number of isolated words or memorized phrases. She is reactive and pauses frequently to search for vocabulary. When responding to direct questions, Julie utters two or three words at a time or an occasional sentence, but she is unable to function with any consistency at the Intermediate level. Most of her language is recycled from the interlocutor’s words or she resorts to her native language.

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Novice High (End of French 2)

Speakers at the Novice High sublevel are able to handle a variety of tasks pertaining to the Intermediate level, but are unable to sustain performance at that level. They are able to manage successfully a number of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations. Conversation is restricted to a few of the predictable topics necessary for survival in the target language culture, such as basic personal information, basic objects, and a limited number of activities, preferences, and immediate needs. Novice High speakers respond to simple, direct questions or requests for information. They are also able to ask a few formulaic questions.

Novice High speakers are able to express personal meaning by relying heavily on learned phrases or recombinations of these and what they hear from their interlocutor. Their language consists primarily of short and sometimes incomplete sentences in the present, and may be hesitant or inaccurate. On the other hand, since their language often consists of expansions of learned material and stock phrases, they may sometimes sound surprisingly fluent and accurate. Pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax may be strongly influenced by the first language. Frequent misunderstandings may arise but, with repetition or rephrasing, Novice High speakers can generally be understood by sympathetic interlocutors used to nonnatives. When called on to handle a variety of topics and perform functions pertaining to the Intermediate level, a Novice High speaker can sometimes respond in intelligible sentences, but will not be able to sustain sentence-level discourse.

Rationale

The warm-up allows the tester to identify a number of topics to develop later in the interview: work, residence, family. Laura is speaking in slow, carefully crafted sentences that sometimes turn into lists. This gives a first indication that the speaker may not be able to sustain sentence level discourse.

The tester asks Laura to describe her community, an Intermediate task. She begins to do so but dead-ends, as she cannot remember the word for “quiet.” The tester tries to get as much information about her community as possible to see if she can sustain Intermediate level speech in order to establish a floor. The topic moves to her house and garden. Note how the tester gives the candidate time to formulate responses, though some pauses seem long. Her speech is mixed with English words.

We see emerging evidence that Laura is creating with the language, with sentences in mind, but she certainly cannot sustain sentence level speech, even if she produces a lot of it. The tester brings up her work, which she mentioned during warm-up, to get another topic: free time activities. This exchange gives us further evidence that Laura is unable to continue beyond one or two sentences before she breaks down into lists - speech more typical of the Novice level.

Similarly, the interviewee talks about her husband being an author, though she is unable to say all she wants to say about him. What she does say is certainly only understandable by a very sympathetic interlocutor. Strong starts followed by dead ends are consistent indications of linguistic breakdown. The tester asks about travel, another possible topic for most people. This gives “Nous avons habitons, habité en Allemagne. Notre jeune fille Maggie, elle vient ici aujourd’hui. Elle était née en Bonn.”

These sentences lead the tester to think she may be Intermediate, but as she continues speaking, the tester realizes that she is not sustaining sentence level speech. We need some evidence of her ability to ask questions. The tester reads the Intermediate role play card in English, and hands the card to the candidate for reference. The role play is then given a context in French, to seem as “real” as possible Here she gives us strong evidence of Intermediate-level function and speech, though not sustained.

Following the role play, the tester can move on to a short wind-down.

Laura is rated a Novice High speaker of French. Throughout the interview, we see a pattern of strengths and weaknesses. While performing a lot of the time at the Intermediate level, i.e., creating with the language at the sentence-level, this production is not sustained across a variety of topics. Breakdown is clearly indicated with her frustration at not being able to express a thought in the second language, and her need to revert to English. This is clearly the profile of a Novice High speaker.

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Intermediate Low (End of French 3)

Speakers at the Intermediate Low sublevel are able to handle successfully a limited number of uncomplicated communicative tasks by creating with the language in straightforward social situations. Conversation is restricted to some of the concrete exchanges and predictable topics necessary for survival in the target-language culture. These topics relate to basic personal information; for example, self and family, some daily activities and personal preferences, and some immediate needs, such as ordering food and making simple purchases. At the Intermediate Low sublevel, speakers are primarily reactive and struggle to answer direct questions or requests for information. They are also able to ask a few appropriate questions.

Intermediate Low speakers manage to sustain the functions of the Intermediate level, although just barely. Intermediate Low speakers express personal meaning by combining and recombining what they know and what they hear from their interlocutors into short statements and discrete sentences. Their responses are often filled with hesitancy and inaccuracies as they search for appropriate linguistic forms and vocabulary while attempting to give form to the message. Their speech is characterized by frequent pauses, ineffective reformulations and self-corrections. Their pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax are strongly influenced by their first language. In spite of frequent misunderstandings that may require repetition or rephrasing, Intermediate Low speakers can generally be understood by sympathetic interlocutors, particularly by those accustomed to dealing with non-natives.

Rationale

After a brief greeting, the tester starts the warm-up phase of the interview with a typical polite request, “Parlez-moi de vous,” which yields a short sentence and an attempt at a sentence that he is unable to finish. The tester continues asking about other topics such as what Barry does in his free time. Barry continues creating with language, expressing personal meaning but minimally and with hesitancy. The tester begins the level checking process at the Intermediate level to determine how much Barry can consistently create at the sentence level.

The tester asks a series of questions for simple descriptions and narrations on a number of topics. Barry answers at the sentence level but he is reactive only and his discourse is minimal saying: “c’est beaucoup de “travel”, “les peuples d’Allemagne c’est les mêmes caractéristes”, “c’est intéressant pour moi de liser le Time parce que je suis…”. (unable to finish.) “Projets pour cet été?” and “Ça dépend how the book does”.

The tester chooses an Intermediate level role play situation to see if Barry can perform the Intermediate function of asking questions. Since Barry is a retired journalist, the tester uses the situation of a reporter interviewing a celebrity. Barry asks 10-11 questions, but they are all formulaic yes-no questions and many of them have errors in form such as a missing verb.

As a transition out of the role play, the tester asks Barry if he has ever had the opportunity to interview a celebrity. Barry responds affirmatively and tries to explain but is unable to do so. The interview winds down with a question about what Barry plans to do afterwards.

Barry is rated an Intermediate Low in French. He is able to handle successfully a limited number of uncomplicated tasks by creating with language. Conversation is restricted to some of the concrete exchanges and predictable topics necessary for survival. Barry is primarily reactive and struggles to answer direct questions or requests for information. He does express meaning by combining and recombining into short sentences what he knows and what he hears from the tester. He is able to ask a questions, although in a very formulaic manner.

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Intermediate Mid (End of French 4)

Speakers at the Intermediate Mid sublevel are able to handle successfully a variety of uncomplicated communicative tasks in straightforward social situations. Conversation is generally limited to those predictable and concrete exchanges necessary for survival in the target culture. These include personal information related to self, family, home, daily activities, interests and personal preferences, as well as physical and social needs, such as food, shopping, travel, and lodging.

Intermediate Mid speakers tend to function reactively, for example, by responding to direct questions or requests for information. However, they are capable of asking a variety of questions when necessary to obtain simple information to satisfy basic needs, such as directions, prices, and services. When called on to perform functions or handle topics at the Advanced level, they provide some information but have difficulty linking ideas, manipulating time and aspect, and using communicative strategies, such as circumlocution.

Intermediate Mid speakers are able to express personal meaning by creating with the language, in part by combining and recombining known elements and conversational input to produce responses typically consisting of sentences and strings of sentences. Their speech may contain pauses, reformulations, and self-corrections as they search for adequate vocabulary and appropriate language forms to express themselves. In spite of the limitations in their vocabulary and/or pronunciation and/or grammar and/or syntax, Intermediate Mid speakers are generally understood by sympathetic interlocutors accustomed to dealing with non-natives.

Overall, Intermediate Mid speakers are at ease when performing Intermediate-level tasks and do so with significant quantity and quality of Intermediate-level language.