• Content
• None or isolated words.
• Tasks
• No functional ability.
• Accuracy
• Unintelligible.
• Text produced
• Random words and phrases.

• Content
• Everyday survival topics and courtesy requirements.
• Tasks
• Can create sentences; begin, maintain, and close short conversations by asking and answering simple questions; satisfy simple daily needs; resolve basic situations.
• Accuracy
• Intelligible with some effort to a native speaker used to dealing with non-natives; often miscommunicates.
• Text produced
• Discretesentences.

Level 1+

• Content
• Basic needs, own background, family, interests, travel, and simple work-related matters.
• Tasks
• Able to participate in predictable conversations about all survival needs and limited social demands; shows limited/inconsistent ability to describe, narrate, give instructions.
• Accuracy
• Faulty but comprehensible to a native speaker used to dealing with non-natives.
• Text produced
• Strings of related sentences.

Level 2

• Content
• Concrete topics such as own background, family, interests, work, travel, and current events.
• Tasks
• Can describe people, places, and things; narrate current, past and future activities in full paragraphs; state facts; give instructions or directions; ask and answer questions in the workplace; deal with non-routine daily situations.
• Accuracy
• Understandable to a native speaker not used to dealing with non-natives; sometimes miscommunicates.
• Text produced
• Full paragraphs, minimally cohesive.

Level 2+

• Content
• Practical, social, everyday professional topics, particular interests, special fields of competence, and to some extent abstract topics.
• Tasks
• Able to communicate in many informal and formal conversations; uses language effectively to describe, narrate, report facts, give detailed instructions and directions, handle unfamiliar situations; uses it less effectively to support opinions, clarify points, answer objections.
• Accuracy
• Communicates relatively well with native speakers not used to dealing with nonnatives. Speech is usually appropriate to the situation, with occasional errors in vocabulary, more complex structures, or pronunciation.
• Text produced
• Discourse beyond the paragraph level.

Level 3

• Content
• Practical, social, professional and abstract topics, particular interests, and special fields of competence.
• Tasks
• Can converse in most formal and informal situations; discuss abstract topics; support opinions; hypothesize; deal with unfamiliar topics and situations; describe in detail; clarify points.
• Accuracy
• Speaks readily, with only sporadic nonpatterned errors in basic structures. Errors almost never interfere with understanding and rarely disturb the native speaker
• Text produced
• Extended discourse.