Helping students of Arabic understand, self-assess, and improve their oral proficiency
2b. What are the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines?
The ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines were developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages in 1986 and revised most recently in 2012. There are four major ACTFL levels of language proficiency—Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, and Superior. Except for Superior, each of these levels is subdivided into Low, Mid, and High.
A fifth ACTFL level called Distinguished was added in 2012. We haven't included it in this tutorial because few students reach this level.
How do they work?
Each ACTFL level corresponds to a specific set of language skills. When you take an oral proficiency test, you'll be asked to demonstrate your language skills by completing several tasks at each level—exchanging greetings, giving directions, persuading, etc.
A rater who is trained to use the ACTFL Guidelines will listen to your responses to these tasks and determine which ACTFL level best matches your speaking skills.
Click here to access the ACTFL Guidelines 2012—Speaking or download them as a PDF here.
How do they compare to other foreign language standards?
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