ERLI Achievement Scale

Level 2:

Reading – A student completing Level 2 Reading should be able to…

• recognize topic and main ideas in readings.
• find directly stated supporting details in readings.
• make simple annotations within a reading following teacher guidance.
• summarize readings orally in 2-3 sentences.
• share reflections on readings both orally and in writing.
• skim to identify topic and make meaningful predictions about the text.
• scan for specific information in a text.
• make simple logical inferences.
• understand discourse structures by locating signal words and completing simple graphic organizers.
• interpret simple charts, graphs and tables.
• use a bilingual and/or English-English dictionary to understand key words and expand personal vocabulary.
• infer meaning of vocabulary from context clues.
• distinguish word forms/parts of speech.
• define high-frequency vocabulary and topically relevant vocabulary in course readings.
• read aloud with correct intonation and pausing.
• read 30,000 words of graded-reading material consisting of 150-600 headwords by the end of the course with an approximate rate between 138 and 200 wpm while maintaining comprehension.
• recognize sight words.

Writing – A student completing Level 2 Writing should be able to…

• write sentences using simple, compound and, to a limited degree, complex grammatical structures as taught in Grammar Two.
• write sentences without serious errors in spelling and mechanics that interfere with comprehension.
• demonstrate an ability to write in a variety of paragraph formats, such as persuasive, process, narrative, cause and effect, and comparison/contrast.
• demonstrate an ability to brainstorm and outline a high-beginner-level paragraph.
• demonstrate an ability to organize a paragraph that includes a topic sentence, body and conclusion sentence along with appropriate transitions.
• demonstrate an ability to employ supporting details, such as relevant examples and explanations in a cohesive and coherent manner.
• demonstrate an ability to correctly use high-beginner-level vocabulary.
• demonstrate an ability to employ a range of sentence structures as described in 1a.
• demonstrate an ability to write sentences without serious errors in spelling and mechanics that interfere with comprehension.
• demonstrate an ability to revise (content) and edit (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, mechanics, and sentence structure).
• demonstrate an ability to avoid plagiarism.

Grammar – A student completing Level 2 Grammar should be able to…

• identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, quantifiers and prepositions.
• use nouns as subjects, subject complements and objects.
• use count and non-count nouns with their correct quantifiers.
• demonstrate a beginning understanding and application of subject-verb agreement, and capitalization and punctuation rules.
• demonstrate an understanding and application of sentence word order in both positive and negative statement, question and imperative forms.
• demonstrate knowledge of the simple and continuous verb tense formulas in the past, present and future in both positive and negative forms.
• correctly use the simple past, present and future tenses with the “be” verb in positive and negative statements.
• correctly use the simple past, present and future tense with the “be” verb in positive and negative yes/no and WH questions.
• correctly use the past, present and future continuous tenses with the “be” verb in positive and negative statements.
• correctly use the past, present and future continuous tense with the “be” verb in positive and negative yes/no and WH questions.
• correctly use the simple past, present and future tense with action verbs in positive and negative statements.
• correctly use the simple past, present and future tense with action verbs in positive and negative yes/no and WH questions.
• correctly use the past, present and future continuous tense with action verbs in positive and negative statements.
• correctly use the past, present and future continuous tense with action verbs in positive and negative yes/no and WH questions.
• demonstrate and understanding and application of common transitive and intransitive phrasal verbs in the tenses described above.
• correctly use simple present modals in positive and negative statements.
• correctly use present continuous modals in positive and negative statements.
• correctly use simple present modals in positive and negative questions.
• correctly use present continuous modals in positive and negative questions.
• correctly use adverb clauses of time, including those with when, before and after.
• correctly use adverb clauses of reason, including those with because.
• correctly use adverb clauses of unexpected result, including those with although, even though and though.
• correctly use adverb clauses of contrast, including those with whereas.

Listening/Speaking – A student completing Level 2 Listening/Speaking should be able to…

Listening:

• demonstrate an ability to use short-hand techniques, such as some abbreviations, symbols and acronyms at a high-beginning-level.
• demonstrate an ability to organize notes from a high-beginner-level lecture by identifying and writing down main ideas and supporting details, employing the use of some key words from a beginner-level lecture.
• demonstrate an ability to pass quizzes/tests based on notes from a high-beginner-level lecture.
• demonstrate an ability to recognize topics of high-beginning-level listening passages.
• demonstrate an ability to identify facts directly expressed in beginning-level listening passages.
• demonstrate an ability to identify opinions directly expressed in high-beginning-level listening passages.
• demonstrate an ability to make predictions about specific content they will hear in high-beginning-level listening passages. For example, using pictures to predict content.
• demonstrate an ability to make inferences about specific content they hear in high-beginning-level listening passages.
• be able to identify syllables at the word level.

Speaking:

• demonstrate an ability to use high-beginning-level-appropriate language in the context of organized presentations that include presentation techniques and can include technological aids.
• demonstrate an ability to use high-beginning-level-appropriate language in the context of formal classroom discussions but mostly in informal classroom conversations.
• demonstrate an ability to utilize correct grammar and pronunciation in spoken communication at a high-beginning-level.
• demonstrate an ability to utilize idiomatic language in high-beginning level speaking activities.

Level 3:

Reading – A student completing Level 3 Reading should be able to…

• identify stated main idea in a reading.
• distinguish between major and minor supporting details explicitly stated in the passage.
• paraphrase the explicit main idea.
• make simple annotations within a reading.
• share reaction to a reading orally or in writing.
• skim and scan to make predictions and verify predictions during reading.
• identify organizational patterns, such as examples, definitions, compare and contrast, and cause and effect.
• distinguish fact from opinion.
• make inferences based on the information in the text and their general knowledge of the world.
• interpret simple charts, graphs and tables, and apply the information to answer questions.
• use information from the text to support an opinion.
• apply vocabulary recognition strategies, such as context clues, roots, prefixes and suffixes.
• demonstrate knowledge of word families.
• define vocabulary in course readings.
• develop knowledge of synonyms and antonyms.
• read 40,000 words of graded-reading material consisting of 600-1800 head words by the end of the course with an approximate rate between 138 and 200 wpm while maintaining comprehension.
• read informational texts with 1100 headwords with reading rate of up to 250 wpm while maintaining general comprehension.
• recognize sight words in prose.

Writing – A student completing Level 3 Writing should be able to…

• demonstrate an ability to brainstorm and outline an intermediate-level academic composition.
• demonstrate an ability to organize a multi-paragraph essay that includes an introduction with a thesis, body and conclusion along with appropriate transitions. Include modes such as persuasive, cause/effect, narrative, analysis, and comparison/contrast.
• produce a response to a text or listening that’s at or a little below their lexile level.
• analyze and report on data from different types of sources such as graphs, charts, tables that’s at or little below their reading level.
• demonstrate an ability to employ supporting details such as relevant examples and explanations.
• demonstrate an ability to correctly use intermediate-level vocabulary
• demonstrate an ability to employ a range of sentence structures using simple, compound and complex grammatical structures as taught in grammar three.
• demonstrate an ability to revise (content) and edit (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, mechanics, and sentence structure).
• demonstrate an ability to avoid plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to paraphrase non-authentic texts written at an intermediate-level and use these skills to avoid plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to use synonyms appropriately in context in a meaningful way while paraphrasing.
• demonstrate an ability to use a variety of intermediate-level grammatical forms in paraphrasing.
• demonstrate an ability to summarize non-authentic texts written at an intermediate-level while avoiding plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to identify the main idea and major and minor supporting details in non-authentic texts written at an intermediate-level.
• demonstrate an ability to organize a main idea and relevant supporting detail into a summary.

Grammar – A student completing Level 3 Grammar should be able to…

• demonstrate knowledge of the simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous verb tense formulas in the past, present and future in both positive and negative forms.
• correctly use all 12 active past, present and future tense in positive and negative statements in sentences and longer contexts.
• correctly use all 12 active past, present and future tense in positive and negative yes/no and WH questions in sentences and longer contexts.
• correctly use gerunds and infinitives as subjects with the appropriate subject-verb agreement and parallelism.
• correctly use gerunds and infinitives as direct objects.
• correctly use infinitives after an adjective.
• correctly use simple present modals in positive and negative statements and questions.
• correctly use present continuous modals in positive and negative statements and questions.
• correctly use simple past modals in positive and negative statements and questions.
• correctly use past continuous modals in positive and negative statements and questions.
• correctly use adverb clauses of reason, including those with because, since and as.
• correctly use adverb clauses of time, including those with when, while and as; before, by the time and until; after and once; and since.
• correctly use adverb clauses of contrast, including those with while and whereas.
• correctly use adverb clauses of  unexpected result, including those with although, even though and though.
• correctly use adverb clauses of condition, including if, unless, whether and in case. (These serve as a lead-in to conditionals).
• correctly distinguish between and use common prepositional forms of the adverb subordinators described above.
• correctly use past real conditionals in their full active forms.
• correctly use present real conditionals in their full active forms.
• correctly use future real conditionals in their full active forms.
• correctly use subject-subject adjective clauses in their full active form.
• correctly use object-subject adjective clauses in their full active form.

Listening/Speaking – A student completing Level 3 Listening/Speaking should be able to…

Listening:

• demonstrate a basic understanding of the topic and main idea in intermediate-level non-authentic academic and non-academic discourse from a variety of listening sources .

• demonstrate an ability to listen for specific details and explain their link to the overall purpose of an intermediate-level oral text.

• demonstrate an ability to predict and make cohesive and basic elaborative inferences.
• demonstrate an ability to distinguish reported speech and cited information from the speaker’s own words.
• demonstrate a basic skill in taking notes on topic, key words, and specific details and organizing notes into sections
• recognize word stress in 2-3 syllable nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs as well as long/short vowel sounds.

Speaking:

• demonstrate appropriate use of supra-segmental and segmental pronunciation features* in mono-logic and conversational speech.

• demonstrate an ability to communicate relevant and structured content in monologic and conversational speech at an intermediate level with or without visual aids.
• demonstrate an ability to orally articulate content with appropriate vocabulary and grammar in intermediate-level speaking tasks.
• demonstrate an ability to sustain, advance and complete an interaction in paired or group speaking situations.

**Level 3 formal speaking tasks include individual (4-6 mins)/group presentation, formal discussion, performance reading.  Students at this level will prepare in advance for academic speaking topics; non-academic speaking topics are impromptu. In conversational speech students provide some support from class or teacher provided materials

Level 4:

Reading – A student completing Level 4 Reading should be able to…

• identify and understand stated and implied main ideas and paraphrase them.
• distinguish between major and minor supporting details for summary purposes.
• annotate text independently while reading.
• respond to a reading by explaining an opinion and using support from texts.
• skim for main idea and scan for details.
• analyze the organizational structure of a reading.
• compare ideas across two texts.
• make inferences based on the information in the text.
• distinguish fact from inference.
• understand literary devices, such as figurative language, idioms and metaphors.
• use vocabulary recognition strategies, such as context clues, roots, prefixes and suffixes.
• demonstrate knowledge of word families.
• define vocabulary in course readings and other relevant academic vocabulary.
• develop knowledge of synonyms and antonyms.
• use vocabulary from class readings appropriately in context in a meaningful way.
• read 60,000 words of graded-reading material consisting of 1000-2500 head words by the end of the course with an approximate rate between 138 and 200 wpm while maintaining comprehension.
• read informational texts with 1500 headwords with reading rate up to 250 wpm while maintaining general comprehension.
• recognize sight words in prose.

Writing – A student completing Level 4 Writing should be able to…

• demonstrate an ability to brainstorm and outline a high-intermediate-level academic composition.
• demonstrate an ability to organize a multi-paragraph essay that includes an introduction with a thesis, body and conclusion along with appropriate transitions. Include modes such as persuasive, cause/effect, argumentative, narrative, analysis, and comparison/contrast.
• produce a response to a text or listening that’s at or a little below their lexile level.
• analyze and report on data from different types of sources such as graphs, charts, table that’s at or a  little below their reading level.
• demonstrate an ability to employ supporting details such as relevant examples and explanations.
• demonstrate an ability to incorporate credible support paraphrased from authentic and non-authentic high-intermediate-level texts.
• demonstrate an ability to use synonyms appropriately in context in a meaningful way while paraphrasing.
• demonstrate an ability to use a variety of high-intermediate-level grammatical forms in paraphrasing.
• demonstrate an ability to correctly use high-intermediate-level vocabulary.
• demonstrate an ability to employ a range of sentence structures using simple, compound and complex grammatical structures as taught in EGM 4.
• demonstrate an ability to revise (content) and edit (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, mechanics, and sentence structure).
• demonstrate an ability to avoid plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources.
• demonstrate an ability to summarize authentic and non-authentic texts written at a high-intermediate-level while avoiding plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to identify the main idea and major and minor supporting details in authentic and non-authentic texts written at a high-intermediate-level.
• demonstrate an ability to organize a main idea and relevant supporting detail into a summary.

Grammar – A student completing Level 4 Grammar should be able to…

• demonstrate knowledge of the simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous passive verb tense formulas in the past, present and future in both positive and negative forms.
• correctly use all 12 passive past, present and future tense in positive and negative statements in sentences and longer contexts.
• correctly use subject-object and object-object adjective clauses in their full active form.
• correctly use relative pronoun deletion with subject-object and object-object adjective clauses.
• correctly use subject-object and object-object adjective clauses in their passive, reduced and fronted forms.
• correctly use subject-subject and object-subject adjective clauses with “be” in their full, reduced and fronted forms. [“be” + a preposition & appositives].
• correctly use subject-subject and object-subject adjective clauses with action verbs in their full, reduced and fronted forms.
• correctly use adverb clauses of reason, time, contrast, unexpected result and condition in their full active forms. [Refer to EGM 003 for a complete list of subordinators].
• correctly use adverb clauses of time, contrast, unexpected result and condition in their active reduced form.
• correctly use adverb clauses of reason, time, contrast, unexpected result and condition in their full passive form.
• correctly use adverb clauses of time, contrast, unexpected result and condition in their passive reduced form.
• correctly use past, present and future real conditionals in their full active forms.
• correctly use past, present and future real conditionals in their active fronted/inverted forms.
• correctly use past, present and future real conditionals in their full passive forms.
• correctly use past, present and future real conditionals in their passive fronted/inverted forms.
• correctly use present and past unreal conditionals in their full active forms.
• correctly use present and past unreal conditionals in their simple and continuous active fronted/inverted forms.
• correctly use present and past unreal conditionals in their full passive forms.
• correctly use present and past unreal conditionals in their simple and continuous passive fronted/inverted forms.
• demonstrate an understanding of noun clause subordinators and their meanings.
• correctly use noun clauses as direct objects in both their active and passive forms.
• correctly use noun clauses as subjects in both their active and passive forms.
• correctly use noun clauses as subject complements in both their active and passive forms.

Listening/Speaking – A student completing Level 4 Listening/Speaking should be able to…

Listening:

• demonstrate an ability to take and organize notes that contain important/relevant information to perform written and oral tasks, with and without time delay.

• demonstrate an ability to predict, infer, and recognize the difference between facts, estimates, and opinions in an oral text*.
• demonstrate a synthesized understanding of the general topic and the main points of different sections of an oral text*.

• demonstrate a synthesized understanding of the specific details and their links to the main points of an oral text*.

  *Oral texts are based on short-to-medium length TED talks, simulated academic lectures (1000–1300 words, 7–10 minutes long) that approximate university-level oral texts, and other oral texts encountered in an academic context.
• demonstrate an understanding of content words and expressions by eliciting association between vocabulary items and their definitions.

Speaking:

• demonstrate appropriate use of supra-segmental and segmental pronunciation features* in monologic speech.

• demonstrate an ability to sustain, advance, and complete dialogues with pragmatically appropriate use of supra-segmental pronunciation features (e.g., utterance-level stress and intonation).

  *Level 4 features: rate of speech with awareness of thought groups; pauses for emphasis; word stress in suffixes and ≥ three syllable words; short/long vowel sounds.
• demonstrate an ability to use attributive language and appropriate reporting verbs with source materials.
• demonstrate an ability to create and deliver cohesive and effective presentations with an accurate reference page.
• demonstrate an ability to orally articulate relevant and well-structured content with detailed elaboration* .

     *Level 4 formal speaking tasks: summary, synthesis, individual presentation (with and without visual aids), group   presentation, debate, formal discussion. Individual presentation length: 6-8 minutes.

• demonstrate an ability to orally articulate content with appropriate vocabulary and grammar in speaking tasks
• demonstrate an ability to use content words and expressions when responding to short answers to questions containing content vocabulary.

Level 5:

Reading – A student completing Level 5 Reading should be able to…

• identify stated and implied main ideas in a range of text types.
• identify major and minor supporting details and evaluate relevance of information.
• paraphrase the explicit and implied main idea in a range of adapted academic texts.
• summarize information from various text types for various purposes with attributive devices.
• make meaningful predictions and check on predictions during reading.
• outline the organizational structure of the reading.
• evaluate text for author’s purpose, bias, tone and point of view.
• make inferences based on the information in the text, charts, graphs and tables.
• compare ideas across multiple texts.
• identify literary devices, such as figurative language, idioms and metaphors.
• Use vocabulary recognition strategies, such as context clues, roots, prefixes and suffixes.
• demonstrate knowledge of word families.
• demonstrate knowledge of synonyms and antonyms.
• demonstrate receptive knowledge of vocabulary from class readings and from the AWL.
• use vocabulary appropriately in context in a meaningful way.
• read 80,000 words of graded-reading material consisting of 1800-3000 head words by the end of the course with an approximate rate between 138 and 200 wpm while maintaining comprehension.
• read informational texts with 2000 headwords with reading rate up to 250 wpm and adapted academic texts with reading rate between 150-190 wpm while maintaining general comprehension.

Writing – A student completing Level 5 Writing should be able to…

• demonstrate an ability to brainstorm and outline an advanced-level academic composition.
• demonstrate an ability to select and  incorporate relevant support paraphrased from credible authentic, advanced-level sources.
• analyze and report on data from different types of sources such as graphs, charts, tables that’s at their reading level.
• demonstrate an ability to employ supporting details such as relevant examples and explanations.
• demonstrate an ability to avoid plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to correctly use advanced-level academic vocabulary appropriately in context in a meaningful way.
• demonstrate an ability to employ a range of sentence structures using simple, compound and complex grammatical structures as taught in EGM 4.
• demonstrate an ability to revise (content) and edit (vocabulary, grammar, spelling, mechanics, and sentence structure).
• demonstrate an ability to incorporate support paraphrased from authentic advanced-level academic and literary texts.
• demonstrate an ability to select and then paraphrase relevant information from a text to support an opinion, main idea or thesis.
• demonstrate an ability to paraphrase authentic texts written at an advanced-level and use these skills to avoid plagiarism.
• demonstrate an ability to use academic synonyms appropriately in context in a meaningful way while paraphrasing.
• demonstrate an understanding of APA document formatting and rules.
• demonstrate an ability to cite sources in APA format including the use of in-text citations with attributive language and a references page.
• demonstrate an ability to differentiate between reliable and unreliable sources.

Listening/Speaking – A student completing Level 5 Listening/Speaking should be able to…

Listening:

• demonstrate a synthesized understanding of the general topic and main points in minimally adapted and authentic academic oral texts.
• demonstrate an understanding of supporting points and their relevance to the main points.
• demonstrate an ability to make cohesive, predictive, and elaborative inferences, and recognize facts, estimates [statistics], and opinion.
• demonstrate an ability to take detailed notes that enhance content understanding from variety of university level oral texts and use notes to perform written and oral tasks.

Speaking:

• demonstrate an ability to employ appropriate supra-segmental and segmental features* in all speaking tasks.

   *Level 5 features: use pauses for emphasis, correct intonation, stress, pausing. Refine features from lower levels as needed.
• demonstrate an ability to use attributive language and appropriate reporting verbs with source materials in all responses

• demonstrate an ability to create and deliver cohesive and effective presentations with accurate reference page and use oral citations while presenting

  *Level 5 formal speaking tasks: summary, synthesis, individual/group presentation, debate, formal discussion

  Individual presentation length: 8-10 mins

• demonstrate an ability to use relevant and well-structured content with detailed elaboration and support in monologic* and conversational speech**.  

• demonstrate an ability to orally articulate content with appropriate grammar and vocabulary in monologic* and conversational speech**

     **Students at this level are expected to provide fully developed, supported statements on non-academic and academic  topics. Support comes from sources and personal knowledge.