You studied Italian for three months in a total-immersion language program in Italy. Or you took Italian 101, 201, 301, and 401 in college. Maybe you completed a series of continuing education classes in Italian language. Now you're wondering if you're fluent in Italian after investing all that time and money.
You could sit for any number of tests to determine your Italian fluency. The Certificazione di Italiano come Lingua Straniera (CILS exam) is considered the definitive proficiency examination to prove competence in the language. There are also alternatives such as the Certificato di Conoscenza della Lingua Italiana (Certificate of Knowledge of Italian Language, also known as the CELI exam) and the Defense Language Proficiency Test. But what if you don't excel at exam-taking, or prefer a different way to rank your language skills on an objective scale?
Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) Scale
The Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR), an unfunded Federal interagency organization, "established for the coordination and sharing of information about language-related activities at the Federal level," developed the ILR scale to measure language proficiency. The scale consists of descriptions of five levels of language proficiency, and is the standard grading scale for language proficiency in the Federal service. This scale can be used to rank your Italian language skills and, if fluency is your goal, identify areas for improvement.
ILR Language Proficiency Skill Level Descriptions and Scale
Below is a condensed version of the ILR Guidelines for assessing your fluency in Italian (or any other language, for that matter).
- ILR Level 1 (S-1) - Elementary proficiency Can fulfill travelling needs and conduct themselves in a polite manner; able to use questions and answers for simple topics within a limited level of experience; able to understand basic questions and speech, which allows for guides, such as slower speech or repetition, to aid understanding; has only a vocabulary large enough to communicate the most basic of needs; makes frequent punctuation and grammatical mistakes in writing of the language
- ILR Level 2 (S-2) - Limited working proficiency Able to satisfy routine social demands and limited work requirements; can handle with confidence most basic social situations including introductions and casual conversations about current events, work, family, and autobiographical information; can handle limited work requirements, needing help in handling any complications or difficulties; can get the gist of most conversations on non-technical subjects and has a speaking vocabulary sufficient to respond simply with some circumlocutions; has an accent which, though often quite faulty, is intelligible; can usually handle elementary constructions quite accurately but does not have thorough or confident control of the grammar.
- ILR Level 3 (S-3) - Professional working proficiency ILR Level 3 - Professional working proficiency Able to speak the language with sufficient structural accuracy and vocabulary to participate effectively in most conversations on practical, social, and professional topics; can discuss particular interests and special fields of competence with reasonable ease; has comprehension which is quite complete for a normal rate of speech; has a general vocabulary which is broad enough that he or she rarely has to grope for a word; has an accent which may be obviously foreign; has a good control of grammar; any errors virtually never interfere with understanding and rarely disturb the native speaker.
- ILR Level 4 (S-4) - Full professional proficiency Able to use the language fluently and accurately on all levels normally pertinent to professional needs; can understand and participate in any conversations within the range of own personal and professional experience with a high degree of fluency and precision of vocabulary; would rarely be taken for a native speaker, but can respond appropriately even in unfamiliar situations; makes only quite rare and unpatterned errors of pronunciation and grammar; can handle informal interpreting from and into the language.
- ILR Level 5 (S-5) - Native or bilingual proficiency Has a speaking proficiency equivalent to that of an educated native speaker; has complete fluency in the language, such that speech on all levels is fully accepted by educated native speakers in all of its features, including breadth of vocabulary and idiom, colloquialisms, and pertinent cultural references.
Are You Fluent in Italian?
So where do you rank on the IRL scale for Italian fluency? Are you only able to ask for directions and make many grammatical mistakes (elementary proficiency, or Level 1), or do you understand Italian grammar to the extent that your errors rarely prevent native speakers from understanding you (professional working proficiency, or Level 3)? Regardless of whatever level you find yourself, consider it a huge step towards native or bilingual proficiency and commit to continuing your Italian studies.
