European Language Portfolio Self-Assessment

[rdearman]

I wondered if anyone had any experiance with the European Language Portfolio Self-Assessment checklist. This appeared a few times on the HTLAL.com forums and recently I sat down and filled it in, then handed it over to my French tutor who filled in the second column. The checklist says if you have completed ~80% of the requirements for each level, then you've basically hit that level.

Anyone ever used this before? Do you think 80% is a good gage? Also, who's 80% mine or my tutors? I'm going to guess the tutors 80% is more accurate for speaking and perhaps listening comprehension, but as they really have no idea how well I read I'm guessing for that section my estimate would be more accurate.

So the question is what is your experiance with this assessment or other self-assessment you've experianced?

EDIT: Added spreadsheet picture. So given this score, where would you say I should place myself?

ChecklistScores.png

[emk]

Anyone ever used this before? Do you think 80% is a good gage?

It's a great checklist! But the accuracy of that checklist depends heavily on how critical you are about your own skills. If you exaggerate your own skill an average amount, the checklist is pretty good. But if you make a realistic or pessimistic assessment of your skill, you may not reach the 80% threshold.

I passed my DELF B2 with a pretty solid score (28 points over the passing mark), and I think the consensus around here is that the DELF B2 is maybe harder than some B2 exams. But when I passed the exam, I didn't quite score 80% on that particular checklist. I definitely think that there are people walking around with real C1 diplomas who don't score 80% on the C1 checklist.

So if you think that you're realistic or pessimistic about your skills, you can definitely pass actual CEFR exams for a given level without reaching 80% on that checklist. But if you're a first-time language learner who tends to over-rate your own skills somewhat, the list is probably pretty accurate.

[rdearman]

So if you think that you're realistic or pessimistic about your skills, you can definitely pass actual CEFR exams for a given level without reaching 80% on that checklist. But if you're a first-time language learner who tends to over-rate your own skills somewhat, the list is probably pretty accurate.

I've never been accused of being an optimist... so perhaps I've done better than I thought. Oh and I should point out that my tutor is a bit of a perfectionist and didn't score any of the reading sections.

[emk]

I've never been accused of being an optimist... so perhaps I've done better than I thought. Oh and I should point out that my tutor is a bit of a perfectionist and didn't score any of the reading sections.

Looking at the table you just posted, and assuming that you're pretty pessimistic, I'd guess that you're either a strong B1 or a weak B2. Do you have your personal per-skill scores for B1 and B2? I think that the most excessively harsh portion of that checklist is probably the listening skills. Or you might have a B2 receptive/B1 active split going on, or something like that.

My old tutor was very realistic about skills assessment, but she taught quite a few serious exam students.

[daegga]

It looks a bit odd that you got 100% for A2, but not for A1.

Generally I prefer language-specific versions, the original checklist has questions I would not be able to answer because the formulation probably has a specific language in mind (English??) with properties not shared by some others.
Here for example a list to distinguish between B2 and C1 in Norwegian oral production (it's in Norwegian, sorry): http://www.folkeuniversitetet.info/avd_ ... i_2014.pdf
This is a test assessment guideline, not meant for self-assessment, but it makes much more sense then the general descriptions of B2 and C1 in the CEFR checklist.

[rdearman]

It looks a bit odd that you got 100% for A2, but not for A1.

Yeah, I thought that when I counted up the scores. But looking back it was more the wording of the question(s) in the first part of the checklist which threw me a little in the writing section. This is because it didn't occur to me that "Tarzan" speak would be acceptable in a A1 sort of checklist. But as I began filling in the second part I could see more the level they are judging, but I didn't go back and change it.

[donJhon]

There are many web based tests and I have scored A2 on one and B1.2 on another in Spanish. A new one I just came across and have not taken is this one: http://www.languagelevel.com/index.php. I think I will do the self assessment and then take this to see if I am close to realist based on previous results and then this one.

The above level test only does English, Spanish, French and German. Maybe I will do the English one also as I am a native speaker and should score high.

[donJhon]

I noticed that you scored yourself higher on the A2 level than the A1. Looking at those and then the tutor´s, you may be more generous than the tutor on the part they assessed. To me something seems to be wrong with the picture when A2 comes out higher than the A1. Maybe you have nailed some more advanced aspect while being weak in some very basic part. Can´t say, you know the saying about statistics, "lies, damn LIES!, and Statistics" but I have found that many people have been mislead by averages because averages simply rarely happen in Real life. Some independent assessment test will probably give you a closer picture than either your and your tutor´s because both are probably biased.

[Arnaud]

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[garyb]

That languagelevel.com test claims my French is C2... I'd love to believe it but no, I don't think we can consider it trustworthy!