Philology. Language

PhD, Doctor in Linguistics Y. Danyushina

Russia

The NATO language competence levels

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization developed The Standardization Agreement (STANAG 6001) to describe language proficiency levels of military personnel in the 4 commonly-recognised language skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The first version of STANAG 6001 was approved in 1976. The current version, edition 4, was approved by MCJSB (Military Committee Joint Standardization Board) in 2010. NATO member countries use the STANAG levels as a means of defining English language requirements for postings within the military. In STANAG, language proficiency (or compétence linguistique, in French) is viewed as an individual’s unrehearsed, general language communication ability. Six levels coded 0 through 5 define each skill area: 0 - no proficiency, 1 - survival, 2 - functional, 3 - professional, 4 - expert, and 5 - highly-articulate native. Language proficiency profiles are recorded using a sequence of 4 digits, with plus indicators when applicable, to represent the four language skill areas, and this four-digit number is preceded by the code letters SLP (Standardised Language Profile), e.g. SLP 3321 means level 3 in listening, level 3 in speaking, level 2 in reading and level 1 in writing.

A set of descriptors determine each level, in general terms, as follows:

Level 0 – No proficiency. Listening: No practical understanding of the spoken language. Speaking: Unable to function in the spoken language. Has no communicative ability. Reading: No practical ability to read the language. Writing: No functional writing ability.

Level 1 – Survival. Listening: Can understand common familiar phrases and short simple sentences about everyday personal and survival needs. Speaking: Can maintain simple face-to-face communication in typical everyday situations. Reading: Can read very simple connected written material directly related to everyday survival or workplace situations. Writing: Can write lists, short notes, phone messages to meet immediate personal needs. Can complete forms.

Level 2 – Functional. Listening: Can follow conversations and talks about everyday topics, including personal news, well-known current events and routine job-related topics and topics in his/her professional field. Speaking: Can communicate in everyday social and routine workplace situations. Reading: Can read simple, straightforward, factual texts on familiar topics. Writing: Can write with some precision simple personal correspondence and routine workplace correspondence and related documents, including brief reports.

Level 3 – Professional. Listening: Can understand conversations, briefings and telephone calls about complex topics, including economics, science, technology and his/her own professional field. Speaking: Can participate effectively in most formal & informal conversations, including meetings. Can deliver briefings. Reading: Read with almost complete comprehension a variety of authentic written material on general and professional subjects, including unfamiliar subject matter. Writing: Can write effective formal and informal correspondence and other documents on practical, social and professional topics and special fields of competence.

Level 4 – Expert. Listening: Can understand all forms/styles of speech used for professional purposes including on unfamiliar topics. Can recognise nuances of meaning and irony and humour. Speaking: Can use the language with great precision, accuracy, and fluency for all professional purposes. Reading: Can read all styles and forms of the written language used for professional purposes, including texts from unfamiliar general and professional-specialist areas. Writing: Can write the language precisely and accurately and can draft all levels of prose pertinent to professional needs.

Level 5 – Highly-articulate native. Listening: Comprehension equivalent to that of the well-educated native listener. Speaking: Speaking proficiency is functionally equivalent to that of a highly articulate well-educated native speaker and reflects the cultural standards of the country or areas where the language is natively spoken. Reading: Equivalent to that of the well-educated native reader. Can read a wide variety of handwritten documents. Writing: Writing proficiency is functionally equivalent to that of a well-educated native writer. Writing is clear and informative.

The STANAG framework derives from the FSI (US Defence Department Foreign Service Interview) from which the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) scale in common use in the USA is also derived. This results in the basic principles of the STANAG system, like its top-down approach, a tendency to define an individual’s level in terms of what that person is unable to do, an emphasis made on language testing rather than language teaching, a focus on use of the professional language in work-related situations - in military contexts.

The Common European Framework (CEF), as well as ALTE (Association of Language Testers in Europe) Scale are built on different principles [1], and a number of the level descriptors in these frameworks are not sufficiently precise [2; 3; 4] to allow exact correlations between CEF, ALTE– or any other assessment scale - and STANAG. Still, some approximate comparisons can be made, like the following:

Level 0 – similar to A1 Breakthrough on the CEF, and Beginner on the ALTE,

Level 1– similar to A2 and A2+ Waystage (CEF), and Elementary (ALTE),

Level 2 – similar to B1 and B1+ Threshold (CEF), and Pre-Intermediate\Lower Intermediate (ALTE),

Level 3 – similar to B2 and B2+ Vantage (CEF), and Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate (ALTE),

Level 4 – similar to C1 Effective Operational Proficiency (CEF), and Advanced, Upper-Advanced (ALTE),

Level 5– similar to C2 Mastery (CEF), and Native/Bilingual (ALTE).

References

1. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, teaching, assessment - Council of Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2001

2. van Ek, J.A. and J.L.M.Trim. Waystage 1990. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998.

3. van Ek, J.A. and J.L.M.Trim. Threshold 1990. Cambridge Univ. Press, 1998.

4. van Ek, J.A. and J.L.M.Trim. Vantage. Cambridge University Press, 2001