Assessing Your Progress
An important part of your training is the assessment of your progress. At the beginning of your training we assess your ability to speak and understand your target language. Based on this assessment we place you either in lesson one if you are a true beginner, or at a more advanced lesson if you have an existing knowledge in the language. Your skill level is also reported to you (see below). We reassess your skill level on a regular basis. The purpose is to help you see your progress and identify areas that you and your trainers need to emphasize in your language training.
Your skill level is assessed in four major categories with appropriate subcategories. A simple explanation of each subcategory is shown. Together these categories indicate how well you speak and understand the language.
- SCOPE: How wide is your range of comprehension?
- SPEED: What speed of talking by a native speaker can you understand?
- STRUCTURE: What complexity of speech can you understand?
- ACCENT: What degree of non-native accent and pronunciation do you have?
- SCOPE: How easily can you express ideas?
- SPEED: How rapidly can you speak and how much do you hesitate?
- STRUCTURE: How well do you use the complexity of the language?
- NOUNS: How well do you use proper gender and cases (where applicable)?
- STRUCTURE: How well do you use complex structures?
- VERBS: How well do you use correct conjugations, subject-verb agreement, mood and voice?
- SCOPE: How wide is your range of vocabulary and how precise?
DESCRIPTION OF LEVELS OF LANGUAGE PROFICENCY:
TOTAL BEGINNER 1 You have no knowledge of the language whatsoever. BEGINNER 2-4 You can communicate in a simple way in specific situations such as ordering food, asking directions, and expressing basic needs. INTERMEDIATE 5-7 You can successfully handle a limited number of interactive, task-oriented, social and business activities. ADVANCED 8-10 You can successfully handle a variety of communicative tasks feeling comfortable enough to conduct business meetings, present a new idea, and discuss details. NEARLY FLUENT 11 You can initiate and sustain a wide variety of communicative tasks with finesse. FLUENT 12 You speak at the level of a native speaker.