Learning a language is neverending story :-)!
There are always new words to learn, skills to revise...Is it possible to define what is "fluency" in a foreign language?
Foreign language fluency can be devided into 4 components:
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Understanding |
Expression |
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Written From |
- to read books, magazines, letters, manuals, etc. |
- to write letters, texts, memos... |
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Oral Form |
- to understand conversations, radio, TV, etc. |
- to speak live, on the phone... |
Usually reading skills come first, they are the „easiest“ part of learning a foreing language. Then you begin to understand the spoken language and you start speaking. Finally, you can write.
Some people only need to understand the language, so they focus on reading and understanding oral form. Others only need to write e-mals and speaking is useless for them...If you want to rate your fluency, choose a relevant part that you need.
Rate your reading skills in your target language by answering the questions below. They are listed in order of difficulty, and you must choose the most difficult you can answer positively. The number in the first column on the right will give you your specific fluency for that component, and the second column gives you one fourth of the overal fluency score. When you have answered for all four components, add the four overall fluency scores to get the total overal fluency score.
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UNDERSTANDING - Reading skills |
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Reading fluency depends a lot on the difficulty of what you read. Letters are quite easy, newspapers are moderately difficult and litterature is the most difficult. |
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
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a |
You understand the main ideas in the articles in magazines, newspapers, but no more. |
20 % |
5 |
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b |
You can read the newspapers and get about half of the content. |
50 % |
12 |
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c |
You read the newspapers fluently, with some words you don't understand here and there (5 by article or less) |
75% |
18 |
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d |
You read newspapers with total fluency, with almost no unknow words. |
95% |
24 |
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Count your score: |
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UNDERSTANDING - Oral Understanding |
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Understanding the language when it is spoken. |
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
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a |
You understand approximately what people want when they talk to you, but no more. |
20 % |
5 |
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b |
You can follow basic conversation, and you understand about half of what is said in the news on the radio. |
50 % |
12 |
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c |
You understand most of what you hear with a few words (expressions) here and there that you do not understand. |
75% |
18 |
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d |
You understand nearly everything what you hear and an unknown word is very uncommon for you. |
95% |
24 |
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Count your score: |
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EXPRESSION - Written Expression |
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Writing a language correctly is quite a difficult part to learn. Some languages, like Spanish, have an easy and efficient writing system, and passing from oral fluency to written fluency is straightforward. Others, like French, Russian, Chinese, require much time to learn.. |
Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
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a |
You can use basic phrases and writing anything takes you ages. |
20 % |
5 |
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b |
You can write simple e-mails without needing too much time, but expressing something complex requires much time and you fell unsure if you wrote it correctly. |
50 % |
12 |
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c |
You write e-mails and letters fluenty, you just need to look up some words in a dictionary from time to time. |
75% |
18 |
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d |
You can write long letters with no hesitation, you "feel" that a written text, word, is correct when you look at it. Writing an essay does not scare you off. |
95% |
24 |
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Count your score: |
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EXPRESSION - Oral Expression |
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Specific fluency |
Overall fluency |
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a |
You can explain what you need in live very basically, with the use of gestures. You can express your opinions with „yes“ or „no“. |
20 % |
5 |
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b |
You can tell people what you need without too much trouble. You can express your own opinions or give sensible answers when asked, but with effort. |
50 % |
12 |
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c |
You have no problem to speak with people, you can speak about most topics without feeling constrained. Here and there, you miss some words, but you can usually explain them by another way, e. g. using definitions. |
75% |
18 |
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d |
You can converse in any condition about any topic. You make jokes, use idiomatic expressions and you can express your thoughts and ideas with all the subtleties and disctinctions that you want. |
95% |
24 |
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Count your score: |
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