ACTFL Level

Features of Speaker Performance

Novice Low/Mid

• Produce words and phrases
• Communicate by repeating conversation partner’s words and with learned utterances

Novice High

• Sometimes but not consistently maintain simple conversation
• Communicate via a combination of learned utterances and spontaneous language in the present

Intermediate Low/Mid

• Maintain simple conversation
• Express own meaning
• Produce complete sentences or strings of sentences in present tense
• Control basic vocabulary related to familiar topics (e.g., home, family, school)
• Comprehensible to people who have experience with language learners

Intermediate High

• Tell stories about past events; keep discourse in past tense most of the time
• Explain and describe in detail sometimes but not consistently
• Produce coherent discourse across groups of sentences most of the time
• Comprehensible to people who may not have experience with language learners

Advanced Low/Mid

• Tell stories about past events; keep discourse in past tense
• Express (and sometimes support) opinions on abstract issues
• Explain and describe in detail
• Produce coherent discourse across groups of sentences
• Control distinction between preterite and imperfect in context of storytelling
• Comprehensible to people who may not have experience with language learners

Advanced High/Superior

• Express opinions about abstract/controversial issues
• Support opinions about abstract/controversial issues in response to objections/arguments
• Produce coherent argumentation in extended discourse
• Use anecdotes only to support arguments, not in place of them
• Control use of subjunctive and other low-frequency or complex structures
• Easily use paraphrasing and other strategies to compensate for gaps in lexical knowledge
• Errors still present, but do not distract from the content of the discourse