Novice (S 0): Prefunctional Proficiency speaking

You have to start somewhere and this is the level you will have to pass through to being able to really communicate in the language. Unless you have just a few weeks to get ready to go and will be in a country for just a week or two, you should not make this level your goal. You will have a hard time even being on your own as a tourist at this level of proficiency.

On the other hand, this is a very valuable and necessary stage in your learning. Here you lay the foundation for the higher stages of proficiency by building vocabulary and familiarizing yourself with the most basic structures of the language. In real communication situations, you may become frustrated. You will have only isolated words or a few memorized sentences to get you through every day survival situations. You probably will not be able to put many words together to make new utterances that people can understand.

• What you can say at Novice level
• ACTFL guidelines: Speaking--Novice

• Generic module: Novice (S 0): Prefunctional Proficiency speaking
• In overview module: Guidelines for setting speaking goals
• In overview module: Guidelines for setting proficiency goals
• In modular book: Managing Your Language Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
• In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 September 1998

© 1999 SIL International