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June 15, 2006
This article is a
work-in-progress. Currently, it's only published as a footnote of
another article. [NOTE: Over the last 2 months, there had been quite a bit
of addition. While it is no longer a 1-table footnote for the Keren Ann
article, it's still not in final polished form. Let's call it an interim
draft copy.]
|
Chankardian
Scale of Composite Linguistic Proficiency |
|
Level |
Efforts |
Characteristics |
|
10 Impeccable |
100% |
Educated. Eloquent. Able to joke
properly and naturally. |
|
9 Excellent |
65% |
Communicate perfectly fine. Cultural
assimilation. |
|
8 Very fluent |
40% |
Free-of-accent Smooth. Healthy
vocabulary. |
|
7 Fairly fluent |
25% |
Crossover point: natural vs.
struggle/conscious efforts. |
|
6 Almost fluent |
15% |
Obvious accent but
intelligible. Limited
vocabulary. |
|
5 Serviceable |
10% |
Survivable as a foreigner without much
limitations. |
|
4 Almost Serviceable |
5% |
Struggle a bit when ordering, asking
directions, etc. |
|
3 Barely Serviceable |
3% |
Major difficulties/frustrations in daily
life situations. |
|
2 Rudimentary |
1% |
Can construct simple broken phrases,
read signs. |
|
1 Almost non-existent |
0.1% |
Only learnt a few phrases by heart. |
|
0 Non-existent |
0% |
Unable to communicate. |
This scale is non-linear. The knowledge attained and efforts required
for
each ascending level increases exponentially. Note the huge
gap between Excellent and Impeccable. Only about 1% of
non-native speakers will ever achieve that top status. Contrast that to
about 5% of native speakers. Obviously, these figures are assigned,
to illustrate my viewpoints and hypotheses. They're not
results of actual empirical researches.
| Level |
Native Speakers |
5-year experience |
20-year experience |
| 10 |
5% |
0% |
1% |
| 9 |
95% |
10% |
90% |
| 8 or below |
0% |
90% |
9% |
|
|
Sometimes the composite scale does not give an accurate (or even
meaningful) indicator. Linguistic proficiency can be broken down into 4
areas: reading, writing, listening and speaking. For most people, they
generally progress at roughly comparable paces. In some cases, a person
could have significant disparity among these areas, due to special history
and unique circumstances.
|
Period |
Reading |
Writing |
Listening |
Speaking |
Composite |
|
1 month |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0.2 |
0 |
|
3 months |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
|
6 months |
3 |
2 |
2.5 |
2 |
2 |
|
1 year |
4 |
2.5 |
3.5 |
3 |
3 |
|
2 years |
5 |
3 |
4.5 |
4 |
4 |
|
5 years |
6 |
4 ~ 5 |
5 ~ 6 |
4 ~ 6 |
5 |
|
10 years |
7 ~ 9 |
5 ~ 8 |
6 ~ 8 |
5 ~ 7 |
6 ~ 8? |
|
20 years |
9 ~ 10 |
6 ~ 9.5 |
8 ~ 9 |
7 ~ 9 |
8 ~ 9.3? |
My proficiency (actual
& projected) in
French (as example to illustrate
disparity over time) In my casual study, I observed several general points:
- Listening is always easier than speaking. There're many who can
understand partially but honestly are unable to respond. French speakers are often wrongly
accused by Americans as "being so proud... they understand you, but
refuse
to talk to you in English..." That's simply a cynical and ignorant
assumption.
- Reading is always easier than writing, with the exception of
blind persons, when reading is hampered by logistical
disadvantages.
- Vocation & aptitude determine which pair (read/write or
listen/speak) is easier.
- If the alphabets/characters are different from those of your native language,
then read/write is drastically more difficult than listen/speak. e.g.
Americans learning Chinese/Japanese. In fact, most beginners give up
learning the written form entirely, and resort to memorization of
phonetic translations for verbal communications.
- For most people, the ranking from easiest to hardest: Read, listen,
speak & write.
- The learning time required for each proficiency phase is on a non-linear scale.
It increases roughly exponentially.
- The first half of the time scale is pretty typical. Whereas the
second half varies widely. It can be compressed by a factor of up to 4x, or
expanded by up to 2x.
- Actual time determined by: Level of immersion, age when starting to learn, teaching mode & techniques, student's efforts expended & resources
available/allocated.
- Top immersion factors: Emigration, extended stay or frequent visits, marriage
(to a native speaker), job,
local society usage (i.e. colonies).
|
Language |
Reading |
Writing |
Listening |
Speaking |
Composite |
|
English |
9.7 |
9.1 |
9.8 |
9.2 |
9.4 |
 |
Cantonese |
- |
- |
9.5 |
8 |
8.5 |
|
Mandarin |
- |
- |
4 |
3 |
3 |
|
Traditional |
4 |
2 |
- |
- |
3 |
|
Simplified |
3 |
1 |
- |
- |
2 |
|
French |
4 |
2.5 |
3.5 |
2.5 |
2.8 |
My current multi-lingual proficiency
levels
|
Language |
Reading |
Writing |
Listening |
Speaking |
Composite |
|
English |
7.7 |
7.1 |
10 |
9.5 |
9 |
The
average American native-born speaker
See also:
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