Levels of language proficiency - my thoughts
I'm always asking new members if they have not done so, to fill out their English and Spanish proficiency level. There doesn't seem to be a standard so I am proposing 4 levels: Does the suggestion "look before you leap" come to mind? I had not even looked at the fact that the following levels are set in drop-down menus on the profile but not defined. It's been a long time since I filled mine out. So I'm addressing this to anyone who may be interested in understanding how I view what the levels mean, and taking away any concept of this post as a proposal or suggestion as to how to set up the site. It really isn't a very important post, so thanks to any to take the time to read my thoughts.
Beginner: You know some vocabulary in Spanish / English but have difficulty making a sentence in either a written or spoken form and have difficulty understanding it in written or spoken form. This would apply to probably 80% of all secondary school students in first or second year of study.
Intermediate: You are able to communicate adequately in Spanish / English in such a way that you can comprehend greater than 50% of the language in written or spoken form.
Advanced: You are able to communicate comfortably in Spanish / English in such a way that you can comprehend greater than 75% of the language in written or spoken form. This is the step just before fluent.
Fluent: Spanish / English is your native language or you have reached a capacity to translate almost any communication without the need of a dictionary. Another criterion would be that you could serve as an interpreter in any professional capacity. .
8 Answers
The problem I have with this rating system is that it's too simplistic. There a people out there, including myself, that fall into different categories depending on whether we're talking about reading, writing, speaking, or listening to Spanish. So for me I am intermediate when it comes to reading Spanish and I am a beginner in every other aspect. (It's encouraging that I notice some improvement with my writing with "Word of the Day" exercises but I'm still a beginner.)
I wish the profile had those different categories listed. Without that, I explained all of this in my profile.
Thanks so much for looking into this, Jubi. You're the best!
It is interesting to see it set out. With someone new I like to know if they have English or Spanish as their native tongue and if they are a beginner in the other language. I will make an effort to write in Spanish for a Spanish speaker who is a beginner [and hopefully receive corrections] If someone whose first language is not English or Spanish joins it is helpful to know their first language for example if your first language is French or Italian you will understand more about the language you are learning, but if your first language has a different alphabet you require more respect and encouragement. i don't take much notice of whether someone is intermediate or advanced - I read a lot so my vocabulary and reading outstrip my speaking abilities - I also need to make more of an effort with grammar. I would rate my speaking and grammar in one category but could put the next category for comprehension. I would just like new people to trust us with their language abilities - no one judges, it is so you receive a more encouraging response.
Annie, you make a good point and it's very interesting. Yes, of course, to understand only 50% is in a sense a poor standard. I'm immediately reminded of a very sad case of which I heard recently occurring in the UK in which a Polish worker (there are presently many, many Polish workers in the UK) was killed in an accident at work, and in which the conclusion of the Fatal Accident Inquiry was that he hadn't understood health & safety instructions given in English. Therefore, if you understand only 50%, you could be missing vital information in the other 50%.
However, on the other hand, 50% is much, much better than nil, & to reach the point of being able to understand 50% of a language, particularly in spoken form, represents no mean feat. For most folk it takes a lot of time & effort to get to this point, & if they've got this far, then it's likely they're dedicated enough to carry through to more complete comprehension.
Even at 75% understanding, or 90%, or even 99%, there's still a chance you could miss vital information.
In my line of work it's very important that I understand 100% what my clients mean, & even dealing with fellow native speakers, I don't always understand them 100% in the first instance. This is why I ask them to explain themselves again, & again, if need be, till I do understand them fully.
And if you're having a conversation with someone who isn't willing to take the time that you need, as a foreigner, to explain themselves to you in a way that you understand, then, frankly, it's not a conversation worth having.
I guess what Jubilado means by his 50% standard is that you can understand only 50% at first brush. Then, at that point, anyone with any common sense asks the speaker to repeat, or, more usefully, to express their sentiment another way, thus eventually the listener will understand properly.
There's also the question of latent ability. When at uni I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study in France for a year. I had already taken French at school for several years & also at uni, yet initially when I arrived on campus in France & began attending lectures given in French (mostly for the benefit of native speakers), I didn't have a clue what was going on. For a while I felt genuine despair, particularly when we were issued with our reading list and I went to the bookshop in town to buy the books and saw how big and difficult they appeared. The lectures might as well have been in Ancient Greek, & for a while I felt as though I couldn't understand French at all. Then after maybe three weeks of constantly attending lectures in French it all suddenly fell into place. It clicked ¡! Then I could understand my lecturers perfectly.
This wasn't because in three weeks I had miraculously relearned the entire French language (I was far too busy sorting out accommodation & bank accounts & familiarising myself with the local night-life for that). No, it was because the latent or dormant French that I had actually absorbed over all those years at school/uni just took a little time to rouse and become active. It took these few weeks for my ears to attune to the real rhythms and patterns of speech for the words that I had already learned in the artificial environment of a classroom or language lab in Scotland.
Thus shall it be, I hope, with my Spanish. Right now (largely thanks to this forum) I could pick up many forms of Spanish writing and get their gist. I would fare much worse in attempting to follow a conversation among natives. However, given the opportunity of immersion, hopefully it will all fall into place.
That said, I still rate myself as an absolute beginner 
This is something that must be sent to the SD administrators. You can send it through the Feedback button or through their e-mail address. They are the only ones that can implement such a change.
I know they are open to suggestions and would love to hear from the members. You can send them an email at this address.
Update:
This thread is being reopened for discussion. I closed it because I read it wrong and misunderstood what it was meant to convey. My apologies to Jubilado.
But to understand 50 %, that is a very, very low standard? That, to my mind, is beginner.
So, who is to set the standard, and who will run the tests? As we self-assess it is not going to be very reliable, is it? Sadly, I hardly ever read anyone's profile. If they stay on site, I feel I get to know them and it would not be very hard to assess their standard by their contributions over a period of time.
That's my personal, and currently very unpopular view.
One of the difficulties with self-assessment is the less your know, the more ignorant you are of what you don't know, hence you might be inclined to over-rate yourself. On the other hand, the more you know, the more aware you are of your limitations. As one of my favourite school teachers enjoyed saying, knowledge is like a light-bulb shining in the dark. The light inside represents knowledge, and the surface represents its contact with the unknown. A small light-bulb has little exposure to the unknown, thus little knowledge can lead to over confidence in your abilities.
Of course, this has been expressed many times in many other ways: ignorance is bliss; the fool is always brave etc.
I have a Bulgarian friend who has lived in England for many years. She and I discuss many subjects, including day-to-day trivia, culture, politics and philosophy. She seems to me fluent in English, yet she vehemently denies this. She says before she came to the UK she felt very confident that she would be fluent in a year. Now six or seven years on she says she feels she'll never master English. She says sometimes she watches her husband me and watching TV and laughing at the jokes and has no idea why. Apparently she just 'zones out' on these occasions.
And I would also make a distinction between fluency and proficiency. As I have previously commented on this site, non-native speakers are often much more proficient in their second language than native speakers are in their first, the same language. Yet only the natives are truly fluent.
nice
I think that this is an excellent standard. I would probably fall somewhere between the Beginner - Intermediate category.
Gracias Jubilado!
