s_allard wrote:After a few minutes we can probably also tell their level of education and probably their age, geographic and social class origin. Much of this lies in accent of course, but in reality we only need a relatively small sample of speaking or writing to say that "if the person can do this then they can probably do everything to a given level".
Although generally true, I know several people who are so damn good at mimicking the educational level of just about everyone they meet that one wouldn't be able to tell what kind of level of education they really have. It's the worst kind of way in which we stereotype each other based on the flimsiest pattern-matching. The craziest example was one of my Turkish-German course mates at university who would speak the worst migrant slang with half sentences and more than questionable grammar when talking to his mates. He seemed like someone who hardly even finished high school. From one moment to another he then would suddenly hold coherent, eloquent and grammatically perfect presentations in class and he always was a very good student. Basically "migrant speak" was his dialect, just like the Swiss can pull out high German from one moment to another. As foreigners we are constantly being judged on this level, and mostly unfairly. Vocabulary has very little to do with any of that, it's mainly grammar. If one manages to speak with perfect grammar and a minimal accent, people automatically assume a high proficiency level. I've had people throw all sorts of unintelligible stuff at me, just for saying too perfectly that I don't speak a language. They thought I was joking. I believe a focus on vocabulary is definitely the wrong strategy when aiming to pass a proficiency level test. This is probably also why they are so reluctant to provide estimates, since a certain vocabulary size usually accompanies certain proficiency levels, but doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be able to pass the test. I probably have a vocabulary between C1-C2 in Spanish, but wouldn't be able to pass the C1 test due to fumbling around too much with grammar in my spoken Spanish.