The Threshold Level
Definition
• It is a detailed specification of
minimum language requirements for
people who want to learn a language
for basic communicative and social
reasons.
• It specifies what a learner should DO
when using the foreign language.
Historical
Background
• 1954: “greater understanding of one
another among the people of Europe” and
to promote “a greater unity between its
Members.”
• 1971: unit/credit system for foreign
language learning by adults.
• 1990 this model was adapted to be used in
school education
Characteristics
• Behavioural objectives
• Objectives are explicit and clear.
• It analyses verbal behaviour in only
two components: The performance of
language-functions and the
expression (or reference) to notions.
What do we have to
consider?
• Situations
• Topics
• Functions and Notions
• Vocabulary and Grammar
Levels Described
A Basic Speaker
A1 Breakthrough or
beginner
• Waystage or A2 Waystage or
elementary elementary
• Threshold or pre- B Independent Speaker
B1 Threshold or pre-
intermediate intermediate
• Vantage or B2 Vantage or
intermediate
intermediate C Proficient Speaker
C1 Effective Operational
Proficiency or upper
intermediate
C2 Mastery or advanced
Main Uses of the Threshold Level
• Planning of language programmes.
• Basis for new national curricula, more
interesting and attractive textbooks.
• Popular multimedia courses and more
realistic and relevant forms of
assessment.
Example:
Accommodation for temporary visitors
• Students should be able to:
• enquire, in writing or speech, about
accommodation to rent, example: the number,
type and size of rooms, the cost (per week,
month or year), the charges and services
provided, the arrangements for repairs and
maintenance
• make oral and writen complainsto landlord.
Common European
Framework (CEF)
What is it?
• 1. CEFR is a planning tool, which provides a common basis and a
common language for describing objectives, methods and
assessment in language teaching.
• 2.It is designed to facilitate the planning of language
syllabuses, examinations, textbooks and teacher training
programmes across Europe, to raise awareness and to
stimulate reflection and debate.
• 3. CEFR provides:
• a) a detailed classification of language use and the
competences of a mature, proficient language user
• b) options for learning and teaching methodology, curriculum
design and proficiency assessment
• c) the scaling of language proficiency, with descriptors for
each level
Why it was
created?
The Common European Framework is intended
to overcome the barriers to communication
among professionals working in the field of
modern languages arising from the
different educational systems in Europe. It
provides the means for educational
administrators,
course designers, teachers, teacher trainers,
examining bodies, etc., to reflect on
their current practice, with a view to situating
and co-ordinating their efforts and to
ensuring that they meet the real needs of the
learners for whom they are responsible.
Uses of CEFR
The uses of the Framework include:
The planning of language learning programmes in terms of:
• their assumptions regarding prior knowledge, and their articulation
with earlier learning, particularly at interfaces between primary, lower
secondary, upper secondary and higher/further education;
• their objectives;
• their content.
The planning of language certification in terms of:
• the content syllabus of examinations;
• assessment criteria, in terms of positive achievement rather than
negative deficiencies.
The planning of self-directed learning, including:
• raising the learner’s awareness of his or her present state of
knowledge;
• self-setting of feasible and worthwhile objectives;
• selection of materials;
• self-assessment.
Learning programmes and certification can be:
• global, bringing a learner forward in all dimensions of language
proficiency and communicative
competence;
• modular, improving the learner’s proficiency in a restricted area for a
particular
Reference Level
Descriptions
• ‘For a given language, to describe or transpose the Framework
descriptors that characterise the competences of
users/learners (at a given level)in terms of linguistic material
specific to that language and considered necessary for the
implementation of those competences.
• This specification will always be an interpretation of the CEFR
descriptors, combined with the corresponding linguistic
material (making it possible to effect acts of discourse,
general notions, specific notions, etc.)’ (Council of Europe
2004).
Levels of the CEFR
• Criteria for level descriptors.
• Level descriptors should be:
• Positive (describing competence, not incompetence ),
• Definite (avoiding vagueness)
• Clear (written in simple syntax)
• Brief
• Independent (rather than having meaning only in
relation to other descriptors in the scale).
• Operationally adequate, providing information
necessary and sufficient for the purpose in hand
Building on CEFR
Common European Framework of Reference
Manual for relating examinations Reference Level Descriptions for
to the CEFR individual languages
Examinations, certifications and Multipurpose: tests , courses,
tests for a given language at a materials etc. for a given language
given level and given learners at a given level
Tests focused on this
ACTFL
• The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines
were created by the American
Council on the Teaching of Foreign
Languages in order to provide a
means of assessing the proficiency of
a foreign language speaker.
ACTFL Stages
• These guidelines identify stages of proficiency, as
opposed to achievement.
• They do not measure what individuals achieve through
specific classroom instruction.
• They assess what individuals can and cannot do.
• These guidelines are not based on a particular
linguistic theory or pedagogical method, and are
intended for global assessment.
ACTFL Scale.
