1. Reading skills
|
Reading fluency depends a lot on the difficulty of what you read. Letters are quite
easy, newspapers are moderately difficult and litterature is the most difficult. If
everybody does not want to read Tolstoy or Maupassant in the original, most people still
aim to read newspapers fluently. |
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
| a |
You understand what
the newspapers articles talk about, but no more. |
20 % |
5 |
| b |
You can read the newspapers
and get about half of the content. |
50 % |
12 |
| c |
You read the
newspapers fluently, with some words you don't understand here and there (5 by article or
less) |
75% |
18 |
| d |
You read newspapers
with total fluency, with almost no unknow words. |
95% |
24 |
|
Your
score : |
50 % |
12 |
2. Oral Understanding
|
| Understanding the language when it is spoken is more
difficult in some languages than others. German, Russian and some spanish accents are very
clear, but french, some english and spanish accents are more blurred.
|
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
| a |
You understand
approximately what people want when they talk to you, but no more. |
20 % |
5 |
| b |
You can follow basic
conversation you overhear, and understand about half of what is said in the news on the
radio. |
50 % |
12 |
| c |
You understand most of what you
hear, be it on the street, on the TV, radio, with a few words or expressions here and
there that stay dark. |
75% |
18 |
| d |
Hearing an unknown word is very
uncommon for you, even when listening to elaborate cultural sendings on the radio or when
they interview country people on the TV. |
95% |
24 |
|
Your score
: |
50
% |
12 |
3. Oral Expression
|
Being able to speak is a must for most people, with the notable exception of those
who learn dead languages. Speaking fluently in basic conversation is not very difficult
for most languages, but to learn it correctly you need either live speakers or good tapes.
Let's see what you can do : |
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
| a |
You can explain what you need in
live very basically, with the use of gesture. Expressing opinions and answering beyond yes
or no is very limited. |
20 % |
5 |
| b |
You can tell people what
you need without too much trouble, and you can express basic judgements or give sensible
answers when asked. Nevertheless, you have to stretch your vocabulary to achieve this and
you you use periphrases heavily. |
50 % |
12 |
| c |
No problem to speak with people,
you can speak about most topics without feeling constrained. Here and there, you miss some
words, but you can usually explain them by another way or ask what they are by giving
their definitions. |
75% |
18 |
| d |
You can converse in any
condition (over the phone in particular) over any topic. You make jokes, use idiomatic
expressions and can convey your thought with all the subtleties and disctinctions that you
want. |
95% |
24 |
|
Your
score : |
50
% |
12 |
4. Written Expression
|
| Writing a language correctly is the most difficult part to learn.
Some languages, like spanish, have an honest and efficient writing system, and passing
from oral fluency to written fluency is pretty straightforward. Others, like french,
russian and the worst of all, chinese, require much time.
|
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
| a |
You are limited to the
most basic phrases and writing anything takes you ages - if you can do it at all. |
20 % |
5 |
| b |
You can write simple emails
without needing too much time, but expressing something complex (hypothesis, conditions,
future) requires much time and you're still unsure if you wrote it correctly. |
50 % |
12 |
| c |
You write emails and letters
fluenty, needing to look up words in the dictionary from time to time. |
75% |
18 |
| d |
You can write long love letters
with no hesitation, you "feel" that something is correctly written when you look
at it. Writing a memo or essay does not scare you off. Your vocabulary is big enough to
allow you to make subtle writings between the lines. |
95% |
24 |
|
Your score
: |
20
% |
5 |
|
|
|
|