Certifications

The CEFR: Classifying your Level of French Proficiency 

 

On your journey towards ever greater mastery of the langue de Molière, it is very useful to have an objective and precise way of classifying your level. To this end, the AFSD follows the guidelines given by the Council of Europe in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, or the CEFRL. This framework allows you to describe your language proficiency in six levels:

 

A1 - Beginner

A2 - Elementary

B1 - Intermediate

B2 - Upper-intermediate

C1 - Advanced

C2 - Proficiency

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Let’s explore what you can do at each level:

• A1: 

  • Can communicate basic needs with familiar expressions.

  • Can introduce yourself and ask questions about personal details.

  • Can interact simply as long as the other person speaks slowly and clearly. 

• A2:

  • Can understand content with immediate relevance.

  • Can exchange direct information to complete simple tasks. 

  • Can describe your background, environment, and needs in a simple manner

• B1: 

  • Can deal with most situations likely to arrive while traveling to a Francophone place.

  • Can produce simple texts on familiar topics. 

  • Can understand input related to work, school, and leisure and briefly express hopes and opinions.

• B2: 

  • Can understand the main ideas of complex texts, both concrete and abstract. 

  • Can interact with native speakers with relative ease. 

  • Can produce clear, detailed text and explain viewpoints. 

 

• C1:

  • Can understand longer, more difficult texts and recognize implicit meaning.

  • Can use French effectively for academic and professional purposes.

  • Can produce well-structured, detailed texts.

 

• C2: 

  • Can understand with ease virtually everything heard or read. 

  • Can reconstruct and present information from spoken and written sources.

  • Can express yourself with fluency, spontaneity, and precision in complex situations. 

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For more information, you can consult the CEFR levels as described by the Council of Europe: https://www.coe.int/en/web/common-european-framework-reference-languages/level-descriptions

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Take our placement test to find out your level and guarantee that you are signed up for the best class for your language needs: https://www.afsandiego.org/placement-test/

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