You can: survive in  travel, social and business situations

• Understand simple sentences spoken slowly and clearly by native speakers.
• Identify yourself and state your business.
• Obtain simple survival information: times, directions, etc.
• Make simple phone calls.
• Exchange basic greetings and politenesses.
• Understand simplified texts, signs, notices, etc.
• Complete personal information on forms etc.
  

You can: handle everyday situations, provided you are dealing with sympathetic native speakers.

• Understand simple statements, questions and instructions addressed to you directly
• Talk about your life, your work and your company.
• Make work-related presentations.
• Obtain routine information on everyday matters and handle telephone calls on most work-related topics.
• Sustain a general conversation with one sympathetic speaker and a work-related discussion with with a small group of native speakers.
• Understand routine business letters, faxes, emails, etc.
• Write simple personal letters and give basic information in writing.
  

You can: co-operate with native speakers on a project and
work alongside them.

• Follow the course of a meeting well enough to make appropriate contributions.
• Make clear presentations and reports, and answer related questions on them.
• Obtain detailed information and ask for clarification in case of misunderstanding.
• Participate in social / general conversation in a group situation with native speakers.
• Get the gist of newspaper articles and job-specific material.
• Write understandable reports, business letters, faxes, emails, etc.
  

You can: play a full part in meetings and disscussions with native speakers.

• Understand normal speed conversations between two native speakers.
• Make comprehensive presentations and short speeches and defend your point of view under pressure.
• Conduct effective negotiations.
• Obtain information from an uncooperative person and press for the details you want.
• Handle unexpected, sensitive, awkward or embarrassing situations.
• Understand newspapers and magazines easily.
• Write good business letters and lucid comprehensive reports.
  

 

A Basic User

A1 Breakthrough

A2 Waystage

B Independent User

B1 Threshold

B2 Vantage

C Proficient User

C1 Effective Operational Proficiency

C2 Mastery

The CEFR describes what a learner is supposed to be able to do in reading, listening, speaking and writing at each level, in details:

Level	Description
A1	Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has.Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
A2	Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
B1	Can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. Can deal with most situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can produce simple connected text on topics which are familiar or of personal interest. Can describe experiences and events, dreams, hopes & ambitions and briefly give reasons and explanations for opinions and plans.
B2	Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
C1	Can understand a wide range of demanding, longer texts, and recognise implicit meaning. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions. Can use language flexibly and effectively for social, academic and professional purposes. Can produce clear, well-structured, detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.
C2	Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. Can summarise information from different spoken and written sources, reconstructing arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations.