LISTENING

I can understand any kind of spoken language, whether live or broadcast, delivered at fast speed, even in a noisy environment.

I can appreciate irony and sarcasm and draw appropriate conclusions about their use.

I can understand any interlocutor, given an opportunity to adjust to a non-standard accent or dialect.

I can fully appreciate the sociocultural implications of language used by other speakers and can react accordingly.

I can follow debates, discussions, specialized lectures and presentations that contain a high degree of colloquial expressions, regional usage, or unfamiliar terminology.

I can fully appreciate films, plays, TV and the radio, including humor, nuance, and implied meaning.

I can extract necessary information from poor quality, audibly distorted public announcements or instructions, e.g. in a station with a train going past, in a sports stadium, etc.

 

READING

I can understand any kind of text including those written in a very colloquial style and containing many idiomatic expressions or slang.

I can scan quickly through complex tests from a variety of genres, including unfamiliar ones; I can read several texts in parallel to integrate information from them.

I can understand texts (for example newspaper columns and satirical glosses) in which much is said in an indirect and ambiguous way and which contain hidden value judgements.

I can understand complex reports, manuals and contracts, including finer shades of meaning and differentiation, plus issues that are implied rather than stated.

I can understand and interpret critically classical as well as contemporary literary texts in different genres.

I can easily understand any formal correspondence, including on specialized or legal matters.

 

SPOKEN INTERACTION

I can converse comfortably, appropriately and without limitations in casual conversation, at social events and in more formal discussions and debates.

I can employ irony and understatement in an appropriate manner.

I can easily keep up with extended debate, even when this is highly idiomatic.

I can contribute to formal discussion of complex issues articulately and persuasively.

When arguing for or against a case, I can convey finer shades of meaning precisely in order to give emphasis differentiate and eliminate ambiguity.

 

SPOKEN PRODUCTION

I can give clear, smoothly flowing, elaborate and often memorable descriptions.

I can argue a case on a complex issue, adapting the structure, content and emphasis in order to convince particular listeners of the validity of my argument.

I can give a smoothly flowing, elaborate presentation on a complex topic, and can handle difficult, unpredictable and even hostile questioning.

I can summarize orally information from different sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts accurately, coherently and concisely without including unnecessary detail.

 

WRITTEN PRODUCTION

I can produce written work that shows good organizational structure, with an understanding of the style and content appropriate to the task.

I can produce text which is proof-read and lay out in accordance with relevant conventions.

I can write stories and descriptions in a clear, sophisticated style appropriate to the genre.

I can write a well-structured critical review of a paper or a project giving reasons for my opinion.

I can write papers that present the background and context, describing procedures and/or proposals, evaluating outcomes and drawing conclusions, whilst following the appropriate conventions throughout.

I can write clear, well-structured complex letters in an appropriate style, for example an application, request, or offer to authorities or commercial clients.

In a letter I can express myself in a consciously ironical, ambiguous and humorous way.

 

STRATEGIES

I can interact naturally, picking up and using non-verbal and intonational cues without effort, and interweaving my contribution into the joint discourse with fully natural turn taking, referencing, etc.

I can substitute an equivalent term for a word I can’t recall without the listener noticing.

I can backtrack and restructure around a difficulty so smoothly the interlocutor is hardly aware of it.

I can edit my written work to achieve the effect I want in a more differentiated and appropriate style.

 

QUALITY OF LANGUAGE

I can reformulate ideas in differing ways to give emphasis, to differentiate and to eliminate ambiguity.

I can convey finer shades of meaning precisely by using, with reasonable accuracy, a wide range of expressions to qualify statements and pinpoint the extent to which something is the case.

I can make full and appropriate use of a variety of organizational patterns and a wide range of connectors in order to organize what I say and write.

I can consistently maintain grammatical control of complex language even when my attention is otherwise engaged.

I can express myself naturally and effortlessly; I only need to pause occasionally in order to select precisely the right words.

I have a good command of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms, including emotional, allusive and joking usage, with a high degree of awareness of implied meaning and meaning by association.