CEFR Goals and English Self-check
The CEFR describes what a person can do with language in context. It is not an app score or a fixed vocabulary count. This page simplifies the Council of Europe global scale to help you choose a starting point; it does not replace a formal assessment.
A1-C2: What Can I Do?
| Level | Observable overall performance |
|---|---|
| A1 | Understand and use very common expressions; interact simply when the other person speaks slowly and helps. |
| A2 | Handle direct exchanges about familiar matters such as personal information, shopping, places, and work. |
| B1 | Understand the main points on familiar matters; handle most travel situations and briefly explain experiences, plans, and reasons. |
| B2 | Understand main ideas in complex concrete or abstract texts; interact fairly naturally and explain a viewpoint clearly. |
| C1 | Understand demanding, longer material and implicit meaning; use language flexibly in social, academic, and professional settings. |
| C2 | Understand almost everything heard or read with ease; synthesize sources, reconstruct arguments, and express fine distinctions precisely. |
Source: Council of Europe, CEFR 3.3 Global Scale, accessed 2026-08-16. These are action-oriented summaries, not the official wording.
Four-skill Evidence
Choose one topic connected to real life. Complete the first version without looking things up and keep the raw sample.
| Skill | 10–20 minute task | Check |
|---|---|---|
| Listening | Hear 2–4 minutes; record the main point, three details, and a retelling | Gist, detail, chunk boundaries, causes of misses |
| Reading | Read 600–1000 words; write five summary sentences and one challenge | Claim, evidence, inference, whether unknown words block meaning |
| Speaking | Record an unscripted two-minute explanation | Intelligibility, pauses, grammar, chunks, task completion |
| Writing | Write a 180–250 word email, explanation, or argument in 20 minutes | Purpose, structure, support, accuracy, revision |
Save the samples in the English Diagnostic. Rate each skill separately when the profile is uneven.
Turn a Level into a Goal
A useful goal contains a context, task, quality threshold, deadline, and evidence.
In 12 weeks, I can deliver a five-minute project update covering context, progress, and risk. Listeners can restate the key points without switching language. I will keep recordings and feedback from weeks 1, 4, 8, and 12.
“Move from B1 to B2” is a direction, not a complete training goal. Progress is rarely linear and cannot be guaranteed by hours alone.
Seven-day Start
- Day 1: complete four baselines and save the unpolished samples.
- Days 2–5: choose one skill daily for 25–45 minutes of input, retrieval, output, and feedback.
- Day 6: repeat the weakest task and compare error categories.
- Day 7: complete the Weekly Review and choose one focus.
Thirty-day System
- Complete at least one inspectable task in each skill every week; repeat the priority skill more often.
- Classify errors as comprehension, vocabulary/chunks, pronunciation, grammar, structure, strategy, or attention.
- Repeat an old task or a parallel task weekly and compare performance rather than feeling.
- On day 30, repeat the baseline conditions and keep both samples plus external feedback.
Twelve-week Transfer
- Weeks 1–4: establish rhythm with tasks below the frustration threshold.
- Weeks 5–8: increase complexity and time pressure; transfer across topics.
- Weeks 9–11: simulate the real exam, meeting, presentation, reading, or writing deliverable.
- Week 12: complete the final task, obtain a blind or real-audience review, and choose the next cycle.
Feedback Rubric
Score each 0=not completed, 1=partly, or 2=consistently:
- Task completion: did the intended information and purpose arrive?
- Comprehensibility: could the audience understand without guessing?
- Accuracy and range: did language choices support the task?
- Organisation and fluency: was the message coherent without disruptive pauses?
- Revision and transfer: could you improve from feedback and reuse it in a new task?
Use totals only for your own longitudinal comparison, never as a label for another person.
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