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Can someone please explain A1, A2, B1... | ||
Tags: CEFR Language Levels | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| kamisoyokaze Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4473 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 1 of 10 27 August 2012 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Can someone explain to me how A, B and C, 1 and 2 relate to anything, using this:
http://www.zfw.ethz.ch/application/admission/conditions/lang uage_EN I have come to the conclusion that my level in Japanese is probably B1. To the British people out there, what kind of schooling level are you expected to reach this level in a foreign language? What does B1 relate to? Upper beginner maybe? I wouldn't say I am intermediate yet, but I would say I am at the level B1. Thanks for any information given, I googled about this stuff, but the best thing I could find was that link I posted above. Cheers, ~Jamal 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4868 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 2 of 10 27 August 2012 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Scroll down a little to the thread What are all the Bs and Cs? for a partial answer to your question.
You can also look up CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference for languages) levels on google/wikipedia. If you're not intermediate yet, you are very likely A2 (upper beginner). B1 is intermediate, B2 is higher intermediate. Usually people - myself included - tend to overestimate their proficiency levels based on the CEFR scale. A2 means you're able to communicate with natives in a simplified manner, but you can talk about a wide range of everday life topics. B1 means you know more than the absolutely essential vocabulary and grammar needed to do that. The official descriptions of the CEFR levels aren't really that informative... They can be interpreted very differently. The easiest way to estimate your CEFR level is probably to look at a textbook series that uses the system and see which of the books seems suited for you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kamisoyokaze Newbie United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4473 days ago 19 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese | Message 3 of 10 27 August 2012 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I see, thanks for the help. They are a little vague, the official descriptions of each
level. Now to try and find out to which Schooling system level they relate to in the UK. GCSE/AS/A2/HE etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ennime Tetraglot Senior Member South Africa universityofbrokengl Joined 5904 days ago 397 posts - 507 votes Speaks: English, Dutch*, Esperanto, Afrikaans Studies: Xhosa, French, Korean, Portuguese, Zulu | Message 4 of 10 27 August 2012 at 1:11pm | IP Logged | ||
Well all such levels are arbitrary definitions of what is in essence vagueness anyway. There is no hard an fast rule that categorizes language proficiency, the mind doesn't work that way... humans do try though ^_^ 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 5 of 10 27 August 2012 at 1:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think this is only one academic's opinion, and in the context of French, but gives a
rough idea: http://www.llas.ac.uk/resources/paper/2 715 A2 GCSE Lower B1 GCSE Higher B2 'A' Level [C2 BA in French?] (I don't know what "higher" and "lower" for GCSE means though). To be honest, I think it is very hard to draw any exact comparison. Edited by montmorency on 27 August 2012 at 1:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5565 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 6 of 10 27 August 2012 at 1:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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GCSE lower is grade G-D and GCSE higher is grade C-A*
As to the CEFR grades I agree it is hard from the Eurobabble description of 'compentences' to describe anything useful - and if it is hard to draw comparisons then the whole system is a bit of a failure - It would be better to set out a table of what one has to do to pass an exam - like this does for grammar - http://www.cavilamenligne.com/activites-en-ligne/niveau-a1-g rammaire, but that would then mean that the whole system would have to be standardised between languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5982 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 7 of 10 27 August 2012 at 1:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree it is probably impossible to precisely map the CEFR levels to the UK system of standard examinations (GCSE/A level etc), but I would say that from my experience of doing A level French some 10 years ago, someone who achieves a high grade will probably be at about B1 on the scale. From what I remember, the full A level syllabus was very good at covering the necessary grammar for the language in general, but the amount of vocabulary needed was much narrower than you would expect someone at a B2 level to have.
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| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 8 of 10 27 August 2012 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yes, the GCSE (which I took in French and German as a mature student) is better than the
old GCE in the sense that you really are expected to speak quite a bit, but you can get an A, or even an A* with what I now realise is a frighteningly small vocabulary. And I think it's much the same with A/AS-level. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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