Levels of Language Proficiency

Levels of Language Proficiency

Elementary to Limited Proficiency * The first two levels of language proficiency deal with the absolute basics of the language. These levels are where speakers learn vocabulary and grammar, especially how to properly conjugate words and how to speak in the past, present and future tenses. By the time these two levels are completed students should have some basic grasp of the language, and they should be able to hold casual, relatively simple conversations about subjects with which they are familiar. At the upper end of limited proficiency, speakers should be able to communicate simple needs such as directions, food and everyday questions.
Professional Proficiency * In this level of language proficiency students move from attempting to memorize terms and vocabulary into the actual structure of the language. Students at this level are working on becoming conversationally fluent, and not only speaking but expressing themselves.
Concepts of study become more abstract in during this level of learning, and matters of opinion and debate are more common. Additionally, during this time, students should begin to understand more complex forms of grammar as well as some of the cultural context that has formed the language to be what it currently is.
Generally, as they progress through this level, students should be able to speak at a regular rate of speech and to use correct language on a level that would be good enough to get a job in a country where the foreign language is spoken.

Native or Bi-lingual * The final level(s) represent the completion of learning a language and a student's total proficiency in it. Students who have mastered a language should be able to speak the language fluently and without hesitation. Students should also be able to grasp complicated ideas and to explain them with the same ability that they can in their native language. The ability to hold meaningful conversations on all levels and be understood easily by all native speakers of the language--including using colloquialisms and common cultural expressions--is considered the final level of fluency and achievement.

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Language proficiency
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------------------------------------------------- Language proficiency or linguistic proficiency is the ability of an individual to speak or perform in an acquired language. As theories vary among pedagogues as to what constitutes proficiency, there is little consistency as to how different organizations classify it. Additionally, fluency and language competence are generally recognized as being related, but separate controversial subjects. In predominant frameworks in the United States, proficient speakers demonstrate both accuracy and fluency, and use a variety of discourse strategies. Thus, native speakers of a language can be fluent without being considered proficient.

A) Skills and components model: The skills and components model is the first major models for testing proficiency and it was proposed by Lado. Its main characteristic is that it is presented in a grid form testing separately the language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) crossed with language knowledge and components (phonology, structure, vocabulary, rate, fluency). An example of this is the early (TOEFL) Test of English as a Foreign Language.
B)

Linguistic competence (Noam
Chomsky): the (often tacit) knowledge
Of language structure necessary for
Understanding and performance
(Speaking)

Components of linguistic competence
• Phonological competence
• Lexical competence
• Grammatical competence
• Discourse competence 3

Points to remember about linguistic competence 1. linguistic competence is based on universal, innate human developmental processes
2. the development of linguistic competence entails increasing displacement/abstraction 3. all cultures make use of instructional strategies (despite #1), which provides a bridge to communicative competence

According to Chomsky, competence is the 'ideal' language system that makes it possible for speakers to produce and understand an infinite number of sentences in their language, and to distinguish grammatical sentences from ungrammatical sentences. This is unaffected by "grammatically irrelevant conditions" such as speech errors.
C)
Communicative competence is a term in linguistics which refers to a language user's grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology and the like, as well as social knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately. The term was coined by Dell Hymes in 1966, reacting against the perceived inadequacy of Noam Chomsky's (1965) distinction between competence and performance. To address Chomsky's abstract notion of competence, Hymes undertook ethnographic exploration of communicative competence that included "communicative form and function in integral relation to each other". The approach pioneered by Hymes is now known as the ethnography of communication. Debate has occurred regarding linguistic competence and communicative competence in the second and foreign language teaching literature, and scholars have found communicative competence as a superior model of language following Hymes' opposition to Chomsky's linguistic competence. This opposition has been adopted by those who seek new directions toward a communicative era by taking for granted the basic motives and the appropriateness of this opposition behind the development of communicative competence.