"How do you define the various levels of competence (ie intermediate, advanced and so on)? Are there any guidelines to help me judge the level of the students? Please help, I am so confused!"
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This question is from Y. Abi-Aad in the United Kingdom
Comments
rebecca1
English levels form a major part of life in the English school yet there is always a great deal of confusion surrounding them. A solid approach is to check with international standards like the ISLPR which clearly set out levels by the skills of students. A quick search on a major search engine, like Google, will reveal more information. These levels can then be compared to other tests of English such as IELTS, Cambridge, TOEIC
and TOEFL. Levels vary across different skills and should be looked at separately.
Asaad ASAAD, Syria
It helps to give the student whose level you want to define a small text of pre-intermediate level and to ask the student to read it. You can judge the general level by the way he deals with task. Advanced students would
generally read with noticeable confidence and ease. To make sure of their ability, some questions can help. Their answers, and especially the way they give those answers, will help make sure of their belonging to the
advanced level. Intermediate students read with a little difficulty. Their self-confidence while dealing with the task, and their answers to your questions show that they understand well the general idea, but can't express
all the details of the text. Beginners usually stutter and may get the general idea, although with some uncertainties.
Sean Kinnard, Japan
To know a student's English level, I usually draw up about 10 simple questions. These could be: "What's your name?"; "Where are you from?"; "How long have you lived here?"; "Do you have any brothers or sisters?" etc.
An excellent answer gets three points, an average answer gets two points, and anything else gets one point.
Don't give anyone a zero, and emphasize that this isn't a test, just a method for you to see that they get in the right class.
If someone scores 1-10, they should go in the beginner's class, 10-20 in the intermediate, and 20-30 in an advanced class.
If you use a coursebook, read the syllabus carefully. Then, prepare questions that require knowledge of those areas covered in the course.Mariana Mourente, Brazil
Defining levels is easy if you have in mind what is taught in each part of the course. For example, in one private English course I know, students are taught four different verb tenses in the first lesson and they keep
learning new verb tenses every lesson until, by the end of the first year, they have seen almost everything they need to know about the English verb system. Where I am working now students are taught only three verb tenses during the first year, because another approach is used. A student could be considered a beginner in one course and an advanced user of the language in the other, and in both cases the placement would be correct.