Fine-tuning your aims
Fine-tuning your language learning aims
As you’re deciding on what you’d like to achieve in your language learning, you can use the famous Common European Frame of Reference (CEFR) to help you. It was designed specifically to help learners evaluate where they are and where they want to go.
Summary chart
This chart compares the general descriptions of each of the 6 CEFR levels. For each level, there’s a description of what it means for you in practice and the sort of things you have to do to get there.
There are three levels with 2 sub-levels each. The levels are marked by letters to make them easier to translate but their names help you understand what is meant by them.
- Level A: Basic user
- Level B: Independent user
- Level C: Proficient user
The level descriptors are from the official CEFR website which also contains translations into other languages. There you can also find more detailed Self-Assessment Grids that break it down into multiple language modes – reading, writing, listening and speaking.
You can get a sense of what this could mean in practice by looking at the level specification for English. There you can see the sort of vocabulary and grammar that may be expected at each level. But do not take them as checklists, they are just illustrations.
| Level and descriptor | What you can do | What you have to do to get there |
|---|---|---|
| A1: Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help. |
You can get around as a very advanced tourist while most of your interaction will be in English. You don’t really know the language, but you go beyond just memorising the barest minimum of words as a visitor to a country may do before a holiday. You will be fishing for words all the time and feel lost in almost any situation. In the old terminology, this used to be called the **Breakthrough level**. You break through just being a tourist with a few words into having some very basic facility with the language but not much more. |
You can probably get to this level with an app like Duolingo, Memrise or a phrasebook. You can get by with raw memorisation of phrases and words with some minimal awareness of how they change (like plural - not enough to even call it grammar). You can probably get by with several hundred words or phrases and almost no grammar. You can take a class or work with a private tutor. You can get to this level in a few weeks or months. It will take more than a weekend with a phrasebook and some listening before you travel to a foreign country. But not much more. |
| A2: Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g., very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need. |
You can live in the country and get by in basic situations on your own but will need English for anything even a bit complicated. You can probably book a hotel but not negotiate the renting of an apartment. You will feel almost completely lost in any situation where fluent Czech is being spoken in a group without taking you into account. You can make friends and they will occasionally humor you and speak Czech to you. You could probably work at a till in a shop or in a place with quite predictable routines. This used to be called the ‘Waystage’ level. It is really a stage on the way to something more. |
You have to do some amount of studying, taking a class, practicing on your own, having interactions with actual native speakers. You will need to have an active vocabulary of about 700 words and maybe another 1000 passive. You will need to know some grammar but well over half of what you say will be incorrect. Vocabulary is still more important. You can probably get to this level in about 2-3 months of fairly intensive study with some interactions with native speakers. But if you only take a typical class of a few hours a week and some homework, it could be a whole year or even more. |
| B1: Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans. |
You can finally live in the country without relying on English for anything complicated. But you would probably still need an interpreter in a business negotiation. You can go out with a group of friends and they may feel they can have a conversation without constantly thinking about you. But you will still feel lost for a lot of it. You could probably do a low-level office or manual job where more is required than a few sentences. An outside observer would think of you as fluent (Benny Lewis’ “Fluent in Three Months” considers this a realistic level to shoot for.) This is the “Threshold” level, you’re really on the cusp of becoming a proficient but not there yet. |
You will need to put yourself out there. Have a lot of conversations with people. Be serious about getting a lot of words in - shoot for 1500 active and another 1-2 thousand passive. You will need to study some grammar. Not systematically but enough to help you string the words together. You will need to very seriously reflect on your learning. You can probably achieve this level in six months if you’re dedicated and serious and get a lot of input. But realistically, you would need a year. You would definitely benefit from a summer school or two in the country and/or a language exchange. |
| B2: Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options. |
This is the level at which you could just about study at University. You can probably hold a typical office job where a lot of writing is not required. You can certainly live in the country fairly comfortably without too much English. You’d still definitely want an interpreter for a legal proceeding or a serious business negotiation. You can watch the news, films and read a thriller but you will often have gaps. Anything very complicated or subtle will still elude you. You can go out with a group of friends and they will almost never feel they have to think about you not being a native speaker. You may have a heavy accent, but you could make a presentation or an announcement and people would understand you without having to struggle. This used to be called the “vantage” level. This means that you have a new perspective on the language, and this is a significant step up from B1. Much more than from A2 to B1. |
This is the real step to feeling at home in the language. And you will need a lot of effort to get there. Many people never do. You can’t just get to this level by memorising words and phrases and having conversations. You will have to get a lot of input. Watch and listen to the news and do at least some reading. You’re not just memorising words at this stage, you are building bigger chunks and ways of expression that go beyond what you can read in a textbook (even if a textbook will still be useful). You can’t get by without thinking about the structure of the language and some grammar. You will probably benefit from thinking about your native language, too. You could do it in a year of dedication but taking two or three would not be anything to ashamed of. Spending some time in the country would greatly accelerate your progress. |
| C1: Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices. |
This it. You can comfortably study at a university and hold any office job. You could run a company, talk to the police even in a stressful situation. You could be a nurse or a doctor treating patients. You could teach a class or give a speech. You will be easily recognisable as a non-native speaker, but it won’t get in the way of your interactions. Many people live at that level for many years in a country, have romantic relationships, marriages, and successful careers. You will understand a lot of subtlety and many language jokes but will occasionally be out of your depth. But basically, you will feel comfortable speaking and will not have a lot of anxiety about having to speak. This level used to be called “Effective Operational Proficiency” which is fairly descriptive. |
Reading and a lot of it. That’s the only way you can get to this level. Watching films or TV shows probably won’t be enough. You will have to have watched documentaries, lectures in the language. And probably you will have read a novel or two and some non-fiction. Or at least a lot of magazine articles. If you don’t like reading (and there’s no shame in that), try audiobooks and podcasts. The name of the game is lots of varied high-quality input. The sort of thing that happens to native speakers. You will have also done a lot of writing. Not just for class but emails, blog posts, anything. And you will have to pay attention to correctness in grammar and pronunciation. Much of it will come naturally from the input but you will help yourself by thinking about it more formally. Some basic terminology will be very helpful. At this and the next stage you will know or recognise anywhere between 7 and 15 thousand words or phrases. But you won’t have learned most of them by memorising them from the textbook. You will have a rich enough background in the language and culture that you can usually figure out the meaning from context without even thinking about it. You will sometimes have to look things up in a dictionary but that will be less and less necessary as your awareness of how the language works grows richer. You will probably come to the realisation that is the core of modern linguistics. The way one language does things is not more natural than another. This will help you ‘let go’ and reduce the amount of interference from your native language. When you switch between the two languages, you may feel almost like a different person. Like having two homes. Both different but equally welcoming. |
| C2: Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations. |
You can study for a PhD. You may still need somebody to proofread your thesis, but you can write it. You could run for office or have a high-level government job at this level. You will probably still have an accent, but it will be slight and hardly worth notice. Without the accent nobody would notice you’re not a native speaker even if you might still make a few errors when you try to speak very fast. But you will understand pretty much any subtle allusion somebody may throw at you. And you will be able to tell apart regionalisms and different accents even if not as perfectly as a native speaker. The old name for this level “Mastery” says it all. This is not necessarily meant to be native-speaker level. But you will exceed the skills of some native speakers in some domains. |
You will probably need to do a lot of writing and maybe formal speaking to get to this level. While you need lots of reading or watching to get to the previous level, here you also need to focus on producing. It is possible to only function at this level in some contexts. But you will need a lot of breadth and depth even so. Many native speakers don’t really function at this level across all subjects. If you achieve this level (apart from the slight accent), you will be better at speaking the language in certain areas than some native speakers. You will probably need at least four years to get to this level. But it could be more. You will never reach this level if you just take classes. You will need to immerse yourself in the language for long periods of time. Not necessarily live in the country but spend a lot of time “living” in the language. Much of what you read, or watch will be in that language for a while. You will have to also have a lot more cultural context than in the previous levels to get the various references. Watching historical films, current TV shows, following the news in the language, all of that will help. It’s not enough to just have friends or even be married to someone who speaks the language. |
Notes on the levels
Speaking, Listening, Reading, Writing
These are just general descriptions of the level of proficiency at each level. They are then broken down into speaking, listening, reading and writing. You can be at different levels of each. You will find the Self-Assessment Grids on the EU website.
Don’t expect to reach the same level in each mode at the same time. Writing often takes much more time than speaking or reading.
For example, many academics can read at level C2, write at C1 and speak at B2 or even B1. But even at each level their skills will be different in different domains. They may be able to read a dense academic book with ease but not get much enjoyment out of a novel. As one Czech philosopher used to say “You can learn enough German to read Kant over the summer. But not to read a newspaper.”
Time and effort to reach the levels
Also, the amount you need to learn for each level increases exponentially. Think of it like an ice cream cone. You need much less ice cream to fill the same height at the bottom than at the top. That means that you cannot plan your learning by years of study such as reaching level A1 in one year, A2 the year after and be at level B2 by year four. You can get to B2 much faster than four years but not if it takes you the whole year to get to A1.
This table illustrates the progression and the possible amount of time it could take to reach each level. These are just estimates, not based on research. You can accelerate your progress with deliberate practice (particularly at the lower levels) or you could take much longer if you just follow a textbook and go to class for a few hours a week.
Also, you can progress faster in some areas than others. You may already have some good speaking competence which you can bootstrap into higher proficiency much faster.
Children who grew up speaking the language and may only be at level C1 in listening but can speak at B1 or B2 in certain domains, can probably get to C1 or C2 in a year or two if they focus on getting enough of high-quality input and monitor their progress in a deliberate way.
Sub-levels
Sometimes, the levels may seem quite broad and daunting. Especially, as you go higher up the scale. There is a similar framework called ACTFL that solved this issue by dividing each level into Low, Mid and High.
- Low - can only function at the level in very limited domains
- Mid - can solidly function at the level but not much more
- High - can function at the higher level in a few areas
You can think of being a low B1 in speaking but high B1 in listening and overall feel mid B1. This is not an official part of the CEFR levels (although you will sometimes see A2.1 or B1.2) but it can be useful to help you better assess where you are and where you’re going.
Differences between speakers at each level
Finally, the higher up you go in the levels, there will be more differences between people who achieved at the same level. They will have reached them through different routes and will have slightly different knowledge. Just like native speakers are all different depending on age, education or the sort of environment they live and work in.
What matters is what you can do with the language to meet your communicative goals. As the levels go up, you need to pay more attention to how you say things but it does not matter exactly how many words you know or how well you can complete grammar exercises in a textbook.