Band

Fluency and coherence (& cohesion)

Vocabulary

Grammatical range and accuracy

Pronunciation

9

Fluency

·    This candidate speaks as fluently as native English speakers. That is, she speaks at the natural speed and continuity of native speakers.

·    She occasionally shows hesitation or occasional pauses when speaking about the most complex or abstract concepts or when recalling examples, just as a native speaker sometimes does.

Coherence

·    When this candidate speaks at length, such as in Part 2, the listener (the examiner) feels that the long answer has a sense of “wholeness” and completeness.

·    Similarly, when she speaks about several aspects of a complex topic, the examiner can effortlessly follow the flow of ideas because the relationships between ideas are clearly spoken. To achieve this, she makes full use of ‘cohesive devices’, such as the introductory words of sentences.

·    When topics are introduced by the examiner in the form of questions in Part 1 and Part 3 or the task card in Part 2, she fully develops these topics by speaking ‘expansively’ to a degree that is suitable. That is, she never gives very short answers to questions.

·   The candidate shows all the vocabulary attributes of a reasonably well-educated native English speaker (but not necessarily equal to a highly educated native speaker).

Vocabulary Range

·    The candidate has a wide enough vocabulary to fully converse about all topics in depth.

Flexibility and Precision of Meaning

·    The candidate shows an accurate knowledge of small differences in meaning and usage between similar or related words, including the more advanced vocabulary.

Idiomatic Usage

·    The candidate uses idiomatic language quite often, naturally and without errors. This includes a few examples of less common or more advanced idiomatic language.

·    A Band 9 candidate shows the strong grammar of a reasonably well-educated native speaker. The only mistakes are the kind of minor mistakes that even some reasonably well-educated native speakers may occasionally make.

·   The candidate sounds like a native English speaker, or like someone who speaks “international English” (such as American English influenced by British English or British English influenced by American English).

·    Possibly she has a slight hint of her native accent.

·    In general, the candidate shows all the pronunciation features of a native English speaker with the only errors being the kind of errors that even reasonably well educated native English speakers might occasionally make.

8

Fluency

·    The candidate speaks almost as fluently as the Band 9 candidate but there might be a few times when she hesitates slightly to find the correct word or grammatical structure to use. However, these occasional hesitations are usually when she is trying to express the most abstract or complex ideas, as in Part 3 and her hesitations are usually to search for ideas.

Coherence

·    Most of this candidate’s language is fully cohesive, as for the Band 9 candidate.

·    However, the examiner might occasionally feel that the candidate could have used a more natural choice of cohesive device (i.e., a choice that native speakers would chose.)

·    As for the Band 9 candidate, she shows the ability to fully develop her answers, using examples and a suitable amount of relevant extra information.

Range

·    The candidate has a wide enough vocabulary to discuss all topics in depth.

Flexibility and Precision of Meaning

·    She accurately shows knowledge of small differences in meaning and usage between similar or related words. That is, she shows strong flexibility in her usage of vocabulary.

Idiomatic Usage

·    She shows good knowledge of common idiomatic expressions.

·    She uses a few examples of less common idiomatic vocabulary in a natural way but occasionally might have some minor inaccuracies in their usage.

Paraphrase

·    If needed, she shows the ability to accurately communicate meaning using other words when she does not know the precise, more advanced word that an educated native speaker would use.

·    She is very skillful in rephrasing sentences or phrases when she wants to add clarity to or amplify her meaning.

Style

·    She shows a very accurate understanding of the appropriate level of formality to use in her choice of words. This includes the possible, occasional use of quite informal language, if it is suitable for the conversation.

Collocation

·    She shows strong knowledge of collocation (= the most natural and common combinations of different words), although she may occasionally show minor inaccuracy with less commonly used words.

Errors

·    This candidate is similar to Band 7 except for the fact that she makes fewer grammatical mistakes than a Band 7 candidate.

·    Perhaps she makes 1 to 5 minor mistakes in the whole test. These mistakes are usually made when producing the most advanced structures.

Grammatical Range

·    This candidate shows the ability to use the most advanced grammar,  effortlessly and almost always 100% accurately.

Complex Sentences

·    She speaks using complex sentences very frequently and shows a wide range of connectives to form these sentences.

Accent

·    The examiner might be able to recognize the candidate's native accent but it is (usually but not always) slight and does not interfere with the English pronunciation in any way.

Understandability

·    The pronunciation is very clear and accurate. The examiner rarely or never needs to ask the candidate to repeat anything (except in the case of the examiner having poor hearing or the candidate speaking too softly).

Basic Sound Accuracy

·    All the vowels, consonants and diphthongs are pronounced very accurately, the way a native speaker pronounces them.

Sentence Stress

·    Almost all the time, the candidate places the sentence stress on the correct word, although there might be one or two times when the examiner feels the wrong word was stressed.

·    To a greater degree than a Band 7 candidate, this candidate makes use of sentence stress to express meaning or for emphasis.

Intonation

·    The candidate frequently shows the ability to vary her intonation to express meaning.

Speed of Delivery and “Chunking”

·    The candidate shows the ability to consistently vary her speed by speaking in “chunks” of word groups.

Word Stress

·    The candidate might make a rare error in placing the stress in a multi-syllable word on the wrong syllable but these errors would be in less common words and they would be the type of error that some native English speakers might make.

7

Fluency

·    This candidate is able to speak continuously most of the time with no apparent effort. However, she hesitates occasionally when searching for a word or the correct way to express herself.

·    Possibly she self-corrects her language more than once or twice, when speaking more complex language.

Coherence

·    The flow of her ideas is easy for the examiner to follow. To some extent, she (wisely) chooses to avoid speaking about the most abstract or complex ideas and this helps her to speak coherently. That is, she tries to speak in somewhat simpler terms than the Band 8 candidate. (In contrast, the Band 8 candidate attempts to express herself almost at the same level and the same degree of complexity as when speaking her own language while the Band 7 controls this impulse to some extent.)

·    This candidate shows frequent usage of a good range of connective phrases and expressions.

·    However, the examiner notices that the range of this knowledge, and the understanding of the usage of these ‘connective devices’ may still be a little restricted. That is, the examiner can sometimes think of better ways to connect ideas than what the candidate spoke (i.e., the candidate occasionally uses a connective device a little inappropriately) or the candidate sometimes doesn’t use a connective phrase when one should be used.

·    She shows a good ability to develop her answers (e.g., adding an appropriate amount of suitable extra information or extending a discussion topic).

·    Although her ability to extend discussion questions in Part 3 is much better than the ‘rudimentary’ level of a Band 6, her ability in this area is still below that of the Band 8 candidate who is able to ‘fully’ develop such questions.

Range

·    The candidate has a big enough vocabulary to hold discussions on a wide variety of topics, at some depth. However, for the most difficult Part 3 questions that the examiner may ask, (e.g., testing to see if she might qualify for Band 8), her vocabulary may be insufficient to allow her to answer with complete fluency.

Flexibility and Precision of Meaning

·    Generally, she shows quite strong vocabulary flexibility (= knowledge of the wider meanings and usage of a word, beyond a single meaning or usage.)

Idiomatic Usage

·    She shows good knowledge of several common idiomatic expressions.

·    She might use a few examples of less common idiomatic vocabulary but also might use some of these inappropriately.

Paraphrase

·    She shows the ability to successfully use other words to convey her meaning when she does not know the exact word that a native speaker would use or when she might need to rephrase a sentence to clarify or amplify her meaning.

Style

·    She shows an awareness of appropriate language style (informal/formal usage) but may occasionally choose vocabulary that is unsuitably formal, such as vocabulary that is more suitable for written English rather than spoken English.

Collocation

·    She shows good knowledge and understanding of collocation (= the most natural and common combinations of different words), although she may make a small number of inappropriate choices of word combinations.

Errors

·    This candidate makes a few more grammatical errors than a Band 8 for grammar (for example, 5  to 10 errors) but these are usually minor errors, when using the more advanced grammatical structures.

·    She might make a very small number of (perhaps one or two) “simple” errors such as when using irregular past tense verbs or omitting to use the past tense when it should be used. Such errors are the result of “old habits” of speech rather than a lack of knowledge.

Range

·    This candidate “impresses the examiner” with her ability to accurately produce a wide range of grammatical structures, including the most advanced structures.  However, a few, mostly minor errors exist.

Complex Sentences

·    This candidate quite frequently uses complex sentences and shows a good range of connectives used to form these sentences

Accent

·    The candidate’s native accent might still be recognizable, but the accent of a native English-speaker is more dominant than the native accent, OR a mixture of native English-speaking accents is more dominant than the native accent.

Understandability

·    The pronunciation is very clear and accurate almost all the time. The examiner never or rarely needs to ask the candidate to repeat anything.

·    There might be one or two times when the examiner needs to “think twice” about what word the candidate just said but it is rare for the examiner to need to ask the candidate to repeat herself.

·    There should be no “patches” of language or short combinations of words that the examiner does not understand at all. However, the examiner might have to quickly “think twice” about the meaning of one or two “patches of language”.

Basic Sound Accuracy

·    Except for perhaps one or two occasions, the candidate pronounces all letters and diphthongs accurately.

Sentence Stress

·    Most of the time, the candidate accurately places the sentence stress on the correct word in order to accurately express or emphasize her meaning.

·    The candidate might make one or two errors when placing the word stress in noun+noun or adjective+noun combinations but these errors are usually for the lesser-known word combinations.

Intonation

·    The candidate shows good knowledge of how native English-speakers use intonation, i.e., a rising or falling tone, to communicate meaning.

Speed of Delivery and  “Chunking”

·    The candidate frequently shows some knowledge of how native English-speakers vary their speech speed to show meaning. This is mostly shown by her ability to speak in “chunks” of “word groups” faster than other parts of her sentences. However, she probably does not consistently speak in “chunks”.

Linked Sounds

·    As part of her ability to show the skill of “chunking”, the candidate shows good ability at linking her speech sounds so that these chunks can be spoken faster. These chunks are spoken almost as if they were one long word.

·    Along with an overall ability to speak linked sounds, the candidate shows a few instances of being able to link and blend her sounds very much like a native speaker does (or some native speakers do), for some short word combinations. For example, she might say, “dIdʒ'ə” for, “did you”.

Word Stress

·    There might be one or two instances of the candidate mispronouncing a multi-syllable word by stressing the wrong syllable but these pronunciation mistakes do not cause confusion.

6

Fluency

·    This candidate’s fluency is marked by her willingness to speak continuously (or her lack of fear of continuing to speak, even if it results in some errors).

·    This candidate shows both the willingness and the ability to seek clarification if she doesn’t understand a question, especially in Part 3.

·    She also has some ability to start talking immediately following a question, even if to just comment about the question. By doing this, she largely avoids sitting there silently for an unnaturally long period of time before answering a (more difficult) question, as Band 5 and Band 4 candidates tend to do.

Coherence

·   Occasionally the examiner momentarily has trouble following the flow of the candidate’s ideas. This is a result of the candidate breaking her flow of language a few times in order to self-correct, search for vocabulary or grammatical structures or to search for ideas to talk about.

·    The candidate shows knowledge of a few different connective phrases and words and uses a variety of them several times during the test, although sometimes the usage is slightly incorrect or unsuitable. (Again, what marks this candidate’s usage of connectives is her willingness to attempt to use them.)

·    She shows some ability to extend her answers (e.g., adding an appropriate amount of suitable extra information or extending a discussion topic). But this skill is not fully developed. For example, there are times when her answers should be developed more and her ability to extend a discussion question is somewhat rudimentary.

Range

·    The candidate has a wide enough vocabulary to converse on most topics at some depth. However, some of the more difficult questions in Part 3, or topics that are not familiar to the candidate reveal a lack of enough vocabulary, or a lack of vocabulary flexibility to continue a discussion beyond a rather simple, but still correct answer.

Flexibility and Precision of Meaning

·    Generally, she is able to express the meaning she wants to express. But she makes a few errors in word choice, although these are usually not severe enough to cause confusion or a lack of understanding in the listener (the examiner.)

·    Unlike the Band 5 candidate, many of her vocabulary mistakes are a result of her willingness to try to speak expansively, even attempting at times to speak beyond the limits of her vocabulary knowledge.

Idiomatic Usage

·    She shows only a limited knowledge of the most commonly used idiomatic expressions.

Paraphrase

·    When needed, she shows the ability to successfully rephrase her sentences for clarification. Similarly, she shows the ability to choose different words to convey meaning when she does not know the most appropriate word to use. However, sometimes her choice of vocabulary is not the most suitable choice when attempting to paraphrase.

Style

·    At times, she may speak using inappropriately formal language (such as the language in “business English” letters or in academic writing).

Collocation

·    At times, she might use a few inappropriate word combinations but these are usually not serious enough to cause confusion.

Errors

·    This candidate makes more errors than a Band 7 candidate, perhaps 10 to 20 errors, but not as many as a Band 5 candidate.

·    Most of these errors are when attempting the more advanced grammatical structures. However, a small number of the errors are at the less advanced level, such as “old habits” of not using a correct irregular past tense verb or not using the past tense when it should be used.

Grammatical Range

·    The candidate shows knowledge of and a willingness to attempt to use some of the more advanced grammatical structures, even though she might make several errors when doing this.

She sometimes produces these more advanced structures correctly, or produces them with perhaps one error in the structure, but usually not several errors.

Basically, she shows that she has some  understanding of the more advanced grammar but she still has not thoroughly perfected the use of this grammar.

In general, this candidate has knowledge of grammatical structures beyond that of Band 5 and is willing to demonstrate this knowledge, even at the risk of making mistakes. As long as these attempts are mostly correct and do not result in confusion to the examiner or contain many errors, the candidate is given points for showing this knowledge, rather than being penalized for the errors.

·    This candidate shows at least some knowledge of, and correctly uses (some of the time), most of the following grammatical points:

- the perfect verb tenses;

 - the perfect modal verbs;

- the passive voice;

- reported speech; and,

- the subjunctive mood.

She has at least a basic understanding of the usage of the word, “would” and can (usually) correctly make sentences such as, “If I had more free time, I’d (= I would) go out more often with my friends.”

However, she probably does not even attempt the past unreal conditional, such as, “If I had known they were coming, I would have cleaned my house” or, if she does attempt it, she might make more than one error using this structure.

·    When speaking about the future using the verb, “will”, this candidate shows the ability to use adverbs of certainty such as “possibly”, “probably” etc.

·    This candidate probably also shows the ability to use “there + be” in other tenses, besides the simple present tense.

·    The candidate nearly always answers questions using complete sentences i.e., one-word answers are rare.

Complex Sentences

·    She shows some knowledge of complex sentences and a willingness to produce many of these in the test. However, her range of connectives used to produce these sentences may still be a little limited and she might sometimes uses a connective word or phrase inappropriately or incorrectly.

·    The candidate shows the examiner, (at least two or three times), that she can correctly use the relative pronoun, “which”, as well as other relative pronouns.

Accent

·    The candidate’s native accent is possibly quite obvious but it does not interfere with understandability. At the same time, the national accent of an English-speaking country might also be discernable.

Understandability

·    The candidate speaks clearly most of the time but there might be 2 or 3 times when the examiner does not understand a word and needs to ask the candidate to repeat what she just said.

·    Perhaps once or twice the examiner does not understand a “patch” of language such as a short combination of words.

Basic Sound Accuracy

·    There might be occasional inaccuracy in a few of the vowel, consonant and diphthong sounds but the examiner usually can guess what word the candidate is saying. For example, saying “ship” instead of “sheep”.

·    Overall, the candidate does not habitually mispronounce any one vowel, consonant or diphthong, although she might randomly mispronounce some of these at times.

Sentence Stress

·    Overall, she shows some knowledge of correct sentence stress, although she does not use correct sentence stress in every utterance.

·    The candidate has some knowledge about which word to stress in noun+ noun combinations or adjective + noun combinations but might still make a few mistakes with this.

·    The candidate shows some knowledge of how to stress keys words in a sentence for emphasis, such as when contrasting.

Intonation

·    The candidate shows some knowledge of how to use intonation, for example, when speaking a list, but is not consistent with her use of correct intonation.

Linked Speech Sounds

·    The candidate mostly links her speech sounds in a natural way but occasionally speaks each word separately, like a robot.

Word Stress

·    The candidate might stress the wrong syllable in a multi-syllable word a small number of times but the word is usually recognizable to the examiner.

5

Fluency

·    This candidate can usually keep talking but, in order to do this, she frequently repeats her sentences or phrases, self-corrects or speaks unnaturally slowly (or a combination of all three of these).

·    Quite often her slow speech is because she is trying so hard to use correct grammar and choose the correct vocabulary. (This candidate possibly has had little or no experience in speaking English in a communicative situation with other people, not just with English speakers.)

·    For simple speech in many or most of her Part 1 answers, this candidate can speak quite fluently, with few hesitations or self-corrections or hesitation when searching for words or grammatical structures. But as the test progresses and the questions or the Part 2 task require more complex language, her fluency progressively breaks down.

·    In Part 2 there may be a few times when the candidate pauses for an unnaturally long period of time, although these periods are usually just for a few seconds.

·    In Part 3, the candidate pauses for an unnaturally long period before answering several of the questions, except for the simplest questions. Her speech is usually quite slow in answering most Part 3 questions because she doesn’t have a big enough vocabulary to express herself.

Coherence

·    The typical Band 5 candidate shows knowledge of only a narrow range of connective phrases. In other words, she does not often attempt to connect her ideas by beginning sentences with connective phrases or, when she does, she repeats the same, sometimes rather simple phrases too often.

·    The typical Band 5 candidate also does a rather poor job at “developing his or her answer” i.e., at giving extra information. This candidate might not fully understand that almost every question in the test (except for the 4 introduction questions) is actually “an invitation to give information”. This candidate thinks the questions are  more simple questions. For example, a question such as, “Do you like listening to music?” is really asking you to, a) first answer the question directly and, b) then give extra information about your music-listening habits and tastes. In Part 3, many Band 5 candidates continue to think that the questions are simply basic questions, without understanding that you should not just answer the basic question but answer in a “discussion style”, which means expanding your answer quite a lot and/or speaking an introductory statement before you answer the basic question, for example, by saying something such as, “Well, it depends on the situation. For example, if ….. then …. But on the other hand, if …. then …..”

·    Some Band 5 candidates, for example, some older candidates who have been working for a few years, tend to speak impersonally in the Speaking test. These candidates think of the test as an “interview” when they should think of it more as a “simulated conversation”. If you avoid expressing your feelings or opinion then you will find it harder to speak extensively in some answers.

Range

·    The candidate has enough vocabulary to generally hold a limited, short discussion on familiar topics, but unfamiliar topics reveal a lack of vocabulary in these areas.

·    Her answers to discussion questions in Part 3 usually communicate meaning but are short.

·    For the more difficult Part 3 questions, she may be at a loss how to answer (or may not understand the question itself.)

·    She can answer Part 2 topics but there might be a few unnaturally long pauses in her speech when she searches for words.

Flexibility and Precision of Meaning

·    Her vocabulary often shows that she has limited flexibility, i.e., a narrow understanding of the meaning and usage of some words. That is, she may use some words correctly but tends to use these words as if they were newly learned, with only one usage or one translation from her own language.

·    She may overuse some words.

·    Even when speaking about familiar topics, she tends to give rather short answers that could be called, “minimum” answers – answers that do usually correctly address the basic question but do not show a wider vocabulary, even when she might know a wider vocabulary. This is often because she is afraid to attempt to speak expansively.

Idiomatic Usage

·    She rarely shows knowledge of the most common idiomatic vocabulary, such as phrasal verbs.

Paraphrase

·    She sometimes attempts to rephrase her sentences for clarification but is not always successful in conveying her meaning when she does this.

Style

·    She shows little or no knowledge of the different levels of formality to use.

Collocation

·    She might make several errors in choices of word combinations and these errors might occasionally cause confusion in the listener.

Errors

·    The candidate makes a grammatical mistake of some kind, big or small, in about one out of every four or five sentences.

Grammatical Range

·    The candidate usually speaks in short, simple sentences and sometimes gives one-word answers.

·    She might have some knowledge of more advanced grammar (for example, the ability to understand it when reading), but she usually does not attempt to produce it. When she does attempt to produce the more complex grammatical structures, they almost always contain so many errors that she needs to try again to produce that structure. For this reason, most Band 5 candidates simply avoid trying to produce more complex grammatical structures.

·    The candidate usually correctly makes sentences with verb-subject agreement (i.e., single verb form goes with single subject and plural verb form goes with plural subject) but occasionally makes errors here.

·    The candidate usually can correctly produce simple, short sentences using the present simple tense.

·    When using the present continuous tense, she might omit the “be” verb, such as, “I studying ….” or, "I'm study ..." .

·    When asked past tense questions, the candidate sometimes answers correctly but often makes mistakes, especially with the irregular past tense verbs. Sometimes she answers a past tense question using the present tense. In a past tense Part 2 topic, she sometimes completely omits to use the past tense or only uses it a few times.

·    When speaking about the future using the verb “will”, the candidate rarely or never uses adverbs of certainty such as “possibly”, “probably” or “definitely”.

·    The candidate can usually use “there + be” in the present tense but rarely or never uses it in any other tense.

·    The candidate rarely or never voluntarily shows knowledge of the present perfect tense. However, when directly asked a present perfect tense question such as, “How long have you known her?” she might answer by saying, “I’ve known her for about two years”. But more often than not, she answers with a short statement such as, “About two years”, not a complete sentence.

When she attempts to form a complete sentence using this tense, she sometimes makes a mistake of some kind.

·    The candidate does not have a clear understanding of the difference in usage between the past tense and the present perfect tense.

·    The candidate is confused about the past perfect tense and if she attempts to use it, it is usually used incorrectly and/or formed incorrectly.

·    The candidate might sometimes make the mistake of using a single noun when speaking in general (for example, “I like dog”).

·    She often does not use the plural after the words, “one of” or “many”.

·    The candidate is confused about or knows nothing about the subjunctive voice and usually does not understand or correctly use the word, “would”.

·    The candidate rarely or never correctly forms the passive voice when it is needed.

·    The candidate does not know the difference in usage between the words, “wish” and “hope”.

·    This candidate probably uses “can” and “must” when talking about the future, instead of correctly saying, “will be able to” and “will have to”.

Complex Sentences

·    The few times when the candidate speaks a complex sentence, the parts of the sentence are usually joined with such simple words as, “and”, “or”, “but” or “because”.

·    The candidate rarely, or never, uses the relative pronouns, “which”, “who”, “that” etc.

Overall

If the examiner feels that the candidate's pronunciation is better than a Band 4 but not quite as good as a Band 6, the score is Band 5.

To a large extent, it is the number of times that the examiner does not understand things (either a word or a patch of English) that determine whether the candidate is Band 4, 5 or 6.

Accent

·    The candidate’s native accent might be strongly evident and may, at times, result in mispronunciation of some sounds. However, the examiner is often able to guess the meaning when the candidate mispronounces a vowel, consonant or a diphthong.

Understandability

·    The candidate speaks clearly most of the time but there are about 4 or 5 times in the test when the examiner doesn’t understand the pronunciation of a single word.

·    There also might be about 3 or 4 times in the test when the examiner doesn’t understand a “patch” of language, such as a part of a sentence or a complete, short sentence.

Basic Sound Accuracy

·    There is inaccuracy in a few of the vowels, consonants and diphthong sounds but usually the examiner can guess what word the candidate is saying. For example, saying “ship” instead of “sheep” and saying “maths” so that it sounds like “mice”.

·    The candidate might habitually mispronounce one or more of the vowel, consonant or diphthong sounds.

Intonation

·    The candidate speaks with a natural rising and falling tone at times but at other times speaks in a “flat” or “wooden” monotone.

Sentence Stress

·    She has some knowledge about stressing the key word in a sentence, for example, when speaking about contrasts, but only sometimes does this correctly.

·    The candidate has little understanding of which word to stress in noun+ noun combinations or adjective + noun combinations. When speaking these combinations, she is more or less guessing which word to stress and, in an attempt to avoid an error, often stresses neither word.

Linked Speech

·    The candidate frequently doesn’t link her speech sounds or words and, instead frequently speaks each word separately, like a robot.

Word Stress

·    The candidate stresses the wrong syllable in a multi-syllable word a few times but usually the word is recognizable to the examiner.

4

 Fluency

·    This candidate speaks with noticeable pauses before almost all answers.

·    She repeats or corrects herself often.

·    Her speech is unnaturally slow.

·    The candidate may be very slow to begin speaking in Part 2.

·    There are long pauses between sentences or groups of sentences in Part 2.

Coherence

·    She can link some basic sentences using simple connectives but these connectives are usually used repetitively.

·    For more complex answers, or in Part 2, her meaning is often unclear.

Range

·    The candidate can give simple answers to most Part 1 questions but the answers are usually very short, often spoken using the least words possible or using one word.

·    She cannot answer most Part 3 questions unless the examiner deliberately simplifies the Part 3 questions so that they resemble the simpler Part 1 questions.

·    She does not use adjectives very often and when they are used, they are limited to simple adjectives such as “good”.

Flexibility and Precision of Meaning

·    She might frequently make guesses at the correct word to use, resulting in many incorrect word choices.

·    She struggles with Part 2, with frequent, long pauses while she searches for words.

Errors

·    The candidate makes a grammatical mistake of some kind, big or small, in about one out of every two sentences.

Grammatical Range

·    This candidate can produce a few simple sentences correctly.

·   She repeatedly uses some of these simple sentences that she feels she can speak correctly, rather than showing a wider range.

·    She frequently attempts to answer questions using one-word answers.

·    The candidate’s knowledge of verb tenses is often limited to the simple present tense, and the future tense, both of which she might speak correctly some of the time, but not always.

·    All of the weaknesses written for Band 5 grammar also apply to this candidate but much more so. For example, the past tense is rarely used correctly or never used at all by Band 4 candidates

·    The candidate might frequently make errors in verb-subject agreement and often fails to use a plural noun when needed.

·    The candidate sometimes alternates between “he” and “she” in her Part 2 monologue, causing confusion in the listener.

·    The candidate might be confused about which word to use among the pronouns, “he”, “him”, “his”, “she” and “her”.

Complex Sentences

·    When she speaks using a sentence, it is nearly always a simple sentence. On the rare occasions when she attempts a complex sentence, the candidate’s knowledge of linking words is limited to, “and”, “or”, and “but”.

Accent

·    The candidate’s native accent is so strong that it interferes to a large extent in her English pronunciation.

Understandability

·    The examiner can understand what the candidate is saying about 70% of the time – the other 30% is unintelligible or very difficult to understand and the examiner might give up asking the candidate to repeat herself after a while.

Intonation and Sentence Stress

·    The candidate might occasionally show some examples of correct rising/falling intonation and stressing the correct word in a sentence but mostly speaks in a monotonic way, like a robot.

·    She might sometimes attempt to stress one particular word in a sentence but she lacks the understanding of which word to stress, with the result that these attempts are usually random guesses at which word to stress.

Word Stress

·    The candidate stresses the incorrect syllable in a multi-syllable word several times.

3

Fluency

·    This candidate pauses for a long time before answering almost all questions, including Part 1 questions.

·    She might not be able to even begin answering some questions, often because she doesn’t understand the question.

·    She might not even begin to speak at all in Part 2, (usually because she doesn’t fully understand the wording on the task card). Or, if she does speak in Part 2, she speaks only a few sentences.

Coherence

·    She has a very limited ability, or no ability to link sentences.

·    Her answers are often short sentences or utterances that sometimes seem only indirectly related to the question.

·    It is difficult for this candidate to express her meaning, even when she understands the question.

Range

·    The candidate only has enough simple vocabulary to answer the easier personal questions such as her name, where she lives, what she does in life and the simpler questions about her habits.

·    Her answers are very short, often one-word answers.

·    She does not understand the more difficult Part 1 questions and Part 3 must be especially adapted by the examiner to resemble the simplest of the questions from Part 1.

·    She often can only say a few words or just a few short sentences for Part 2 and sometimes cannot say anything at all. 

·    She rarely uses any adjectives.

·    She answers using one word answers very often.

·    She has virtually no knowledge or understanding of verb tenses.

·    She attempts to make some simple sentences but is usually unsuccessful. Except for a few memorized sentences, she only has the knowledge to construct a few very simple sentences correctly.

Accent

·    The candidate has a very heavy native accent that severely interferes with her English pronunciation.

Understandability

·    The examiner can only understand the candidate’s pronunciation less than 50% of the time. Much of what the candidate says is unintelligible or very difficult to understand.

·    Virtually everything the candidate says is spoken in a monotonic way, like a robot.

2

·    This candidate is able to speak very little English and pauses for quite a long time before almost every word.

·    There are long silences because the candidate understands very few of the questions.

·    It is very difficult for the examiner and the candidate to communicate at all with other.

·    This candidate only knows a few simple words of English and a few, short memorized phrases or sentences.

·    She cannot communicate much beyond saying “Hello” and giving her name.

·    This candidate only knows one or two simple, memorized sentences and phrases.

·    She usually doesn’t fully understand any questions beyond, “What’s your name?”

·    The examiner can only recognize a few English words in what the candidate says, and the candidate usually says very little.

1

·    There is no communication possible between the examiner and the candidate.

·    The candidate says virtually nothing.

·    The examiner can hardly recognize that the candidate is speaking English. This candidate speaks almost nothing, anyway.

0

·   Does not attend