13 First

Principles

Oral Proficiency Academic

Rating Scales Government (ACTFL/ETS)
(FSI) Scale Scale Definition

5 Native Able to speak like an educated

native speaker

4+ Superior Able to speak the language with

4 sufficient structural accuracy
3+ and vocabulary to participate
3 effectively in most formal and
informal conversations

2+ Advanced Plus Able to satisfy most work re-

quirements and show some abil-
ity to communicate on concrete
topics
2 Advanced Able to satisfy routine social de-
mands and limited work re-
Able to satisfy most survival
1+ Intermediate—High needs and limited social de-
mands
Able to satisfy some survival
needs and some limited social
1 Intermediate—Mid demands
Able to satisfy basic survival
Intermediate—Low needs and minimum courtesy
requirements

0+ Novice—High Able to satisfy immediate needs

with learned utterances
0 Novice—Mid Able to operate in only a very
limited capacity
Novice—Low Unable to function in the spo-
ken language
0 No ability whatsoever in the
language
________________________________________________________________
Source: Judith E. Liskin-Gasparro. ETS Oral Proficiency Testing Manual. Princeton, N.J.: Ed-
ucational Testing Service, 1982.
 First Principles

Expected Levels of Speaking Proficiency in Languages Taught at

the Foreign Service Institute

Group I: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian Creole, Italian, Nor-

wegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish.

Length of Training Aptitude for Language Learning

Minimum Average Superior

8 weeks (240 hours) 1 1/1 + 1+

16 weeks (480 hours) 1+ 2 2+
24 weeks (720 hours) 2 2+ 3

Group II: Bulgarian, Dari, Farsi, German, Greek, Hindi, Indonesian, Ma-lay,
Urdu
Length of Training Aptitude for Language Learning
Minimum Average Superior
16 weeks (480 hours) 1 1/2 + 1 + /2
24 weeks (720 hours) 1+ 2 2 + /3
44 weeks (1320 hours) 2/2+ 2 + /3 3/3 +
Group III: Amharic, Bengali, Burmese, Czech, Finnish, Hebrew, Hun-
garian, Khmer, Lao, Nepali, Filipino, Polish, Russian, Serbo-
Croatian, Sinhala, Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese
Length of Training Aptitude for Language Learning
Minimum Average Superior
16 weeks (480 hours) 0+ 1 1/1 +
24 weeks (720 hours) 1+ 2 2/2 +
44 weeks (1320 hours) 2 2+ 3
Group IV: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Korean
Length of Training
Source:Aptitude
Judith E. for Language Learning
Liskin-Gasparro. ETS Oral Proficiency Testing
Manual Minimum
. Princeton, N. Average
J. : Superior
Educational Testing Service, 1982
16 weeks (480 hours) 0+ 1 1
24 weeks (720 hours) 1 1+ 1+
44 weeks (1320 hours) 1+ 2 2+
80-92 weeks (2400-2760 hours) 2+ 3 3+