Helping students of Arabic understand, self-assess, and improve their oral proficiency
4d. Is my oral proficiency at the Advanced level?
Advanced-level speakers are able to converse with confidence and use strategies to make up for language limitations. Their speech is easily understood by native speakers, even those who aren't used to speaking with non-natives.
| Tasks | Advise, compare, explain, narrate |
| Topics | Daily life situations, topics of personal interest |
| Quantity | Connected sentences |
| Quality | Factual talk in conversation |
Listen to these Advanced-level task responses. If you think your response would be similar in length (how much you say) and content (what you say), then your speaking abilities are at least at the Advanced level.
Advanced Sample Task
Imagine that you are studying Arabic and living with a Lebanese family in Beirut, Lebanon. Today, you are going on a short trip to visit the city and take a map from Maha, the mother of the family. During the trip, you lose the map. Upon your return home, Maha asks you about the trip. Explain to her what happened, and offer to buy her a new map.
Intermediate High Performance
Rater Comments:
Started with a description of the city but failed to complete the task (narrating in past).
Advanced Low Performance
Rater Comments:
Completes the task with some hesitations and self-corrections.
Advanced Mid Performance
Rater Comments:
Organized ideas into a full paragraph. Details are adequate about the incident and recommendation is clearly stated.
