Proficiency Levels in Language

In language education, language proficiency refers to one’s general language knowledge and skills for using the target language for various communicative purposes. However, researchers disagree about what proficiency entails, with the differences reflecting their theoretical orientations.

For example, generative linguists, influenced by the work of Noam Chomsky, restrict their focus to grammatical knowledge. Dell Hymes, a sociolinguist, expanded the scope to emphasize the social appropriateness of language use. He proposed as a model communicative competence, which includes both knowledge (not only grammatical knowledge but also sociolinguistic knowledge) and the ability for use (one’s potential ability to use the language in socially appropriate ways).

Although Hymes’s proposed model was situated in the first-language (L1) contexts, his notion of communicative competence greatly influenced succeeding models of language proficiency for second-language (L2) learners. For example, Michael Canale and Merrill Swain’s communicative competence, one of the most influential models in L2 acquisition, was composed of grammatical, sociolinguistic, and strategic competencies. Lyle Bachman and Adrian Palmer further elaborated Canale and Swain’s model and proposed a hierarchical model of communicative language ability, which consisted of organizational knowledge (grammatical and textual knowledge), pragmatic knowledge (functional and sociolinguistic knowledge), and strategic competence (a series of metacognitive strategies).

Jan H. Hulstijn, in an attempt to explain individual differences among L1 users (native speakers) as well as among L2 users, proposed a language proficiency model composed of core and periphery elements. Core elements are linguistic knowledge and processing skills (speed) in phonetic, phonological, morphosyntactic, and lexical domains. Periphery elements are metacognitive competencies, including metalinguistic knowledge, strategic competence, and so forth. In Hulstijn’s model, core elements can be divided into two types: basic language cognition and high language cognition. Basic language cognition is restricted to oral domains only (listening and speaking) and is attainable by all L1 users, whereas the degree of attainment of high language cognition differs substantially among L1 users with different age, educational, and literacy levels. Hulstijn predicts that L2 users can develop a high level of high language cognition depending on their educational and literacy levels in their L1 but may not be able to fully develop basic language cognition in their L2.

Although these multiconstruct models of language proficiency have been widely adopted in language education, researchers have found it rather difficult to provide empirical evidence to support the construct configurations of their models.

Despite lack of consensus on what accounts for language proficiency, the notion of proficiency [Page 1309]levels continues to be frequently employed in practice. Learners may be arranged in different programs according to their proficiency levels, such as beginning, intermediate, and advanced. Similarly, curriculum and material may be developed in sequence from lower to higher proficiency levels. Various kinds of L2 assessments are available to identify learners’ proficiency levels as well. The Foreign Language Assessment Database developed by the Center for Applied Linguistics, for example, contains information on more than 200 proficiency tests for identifying one’s proficiency levels in more than 90 languages. It is important to note that language proficiency tests, unlike achievement tests, are not tied to a particular course, curriculum, or program.

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