Attach 5a_GENERIC BPLDs for Listening.pdf

Generic Borderline Proficiency Level Descriptors (BPLDs)

LISTENING COMPREHENSION

Borderline 0+ Borderline 1 Borderline 1+

1. Understands about 50 memorized words or phrases familiar to the listener.

2. Understands very simple or formulaic utterances, such as greetings, and simple commands such as “Keep off the grass.”

1. Understands some main ideas in simple authentic materials, which are expressed by a limited number of voices at a slower-than-normal speed/rate of delivery.

2. Requires frequent redundancy, repetition, and paraphrasing.

3. Can understand known language that has been recombined in new ways.

4. General vocabulary relevant to immediate needs in routine, everyday domain with minimal awareness of grammatical structure.

5. Focused on familiar/ personal topics.

1. Understands some main ideas and concrete facts.

2. Understands some common timeframes.

3. Uses vocabulary, including adjectives, to understand some descriptions.

4. Aware of some basic cohesive features.

5. Can understand materials using vocabulary beyond basic needs.

6. Understands most question forms.

7. Requires some redundancy, repetition, and paraphrasing.

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

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LISTENING COMPREHENSION (Continued)

Borderline 2 Borderline 2+ Borderline 3

1. Understands routine, everyday, familiar, predictable authentic materials, basic time frames, and functional grammatical relations within and among sentences.

Materials reflect normal redundancy and the listener does not require accommodation.

2. Often able to understand main ideas:

who, what, where, when, how, and why (how and why only when explained in a straightforward, non-speculative manner). Strength of understanding will be in concrete domains.

3. Comprehends well-known current events;

vocabulary includes routine, everyday familiar topics; understands various target language organizational patterns, such as cause and effect and chronology.

4. Uses contextual and real-world cues to understand the materials

1. Consistently able to understand main ideas and factual content in authentic materials on familiar topics; sometimes understands abstract content and unfamiliar material.

2. Has a broad active vocabulary, including common or general vocabulary, with some abstract vocabulary.

3. Understands some target language organizational patterns for hypothetical statements and supported opinion. May understand a few emotional overtones.

4. Strength of understanding will be in specific/concrete domains but with additional topics and expanded vocabulary; comprehension of familiar material is fairly automatic.

5. Emerging ability to draw from sociolinguistic knowledge to advance understanding

1. Able to listen with automatic and almost complete comprehension within a normal range of speeds to a variety of authentic materials on unfamiliar topics.

2. Generally able to listen smoothly, without pausing to retrieve general vocabulary.

3. Understands ideas, supporting facts, opinions, and various levels of details in extended discourse.

4. Can understand vocabulary used to express both concrete and abstract concepts.

5. Understands hypothetical statements;

can understand the implications of the message and the implicit intent of the speaker. Often detects some emotional overtones.

6. Can understand a range of speakers with various accents, speaking a standard variant of the language.

7. Able to “listen between the lines.” Listens to learn rather than learns to listen.

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LISTENING COMPREHENSION (Continued)

Borderline 3+ Borderline 4

1. Comprehends most of the content and intent of a variety of forms and styles of speech pertinent to professional needs, as well as general topics and social conversations.

2. Ability to comprehend some, but not all distinctions (e.g., intent, vocabulary, syntax) in language tailored for different audiences

3. Ability to comprehend many sociolinguistic and cultural references. However, may miss some subtleties and nuances.

4. Increased ability to understand native speakers talking quickly in non-standard dialect or slang.

However comprehension is not complete.

5. Increased ability to understand complex structures in lengthy utterances

6. May be able to discern some relationships among sophisticated listening texts.

7. Can follow some unpredictable turns of thought in both informal and formal speech.

1. Ability to listen ‘beyond the lines’ (i.e., understand how listening texts fit into the wider cultural environment and ability to discern some relationships among sophisticated listening materials in the context of broad experience.

2. Ability to understand language specifically tailored (e.g., persuasion, representation, counseling, negotiating), to different audiences.

3. Ability to understand many cultural references, some literary allusions, some quotations from literature and other significant documents.

4. Ability to understand all forms and styles of speech pertinent to professional needs.

5. Ability to understand all speech with extensive and precise vocabulary, subtleties and nuances in all standard dialects on any subject relevant to professional needs.

6. Ability to follow unpredictable turns of thought readily in informal and formal speech in subject matter directed to the general listener.

7. Ability to understand speech in some non-standard dialects and slang [referring to transitory language use].

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