What is language fluency?
22nd December 2020
There are several ways of categorising someone’s linguistic skills, but when can we say that someone is fluent? Where does accent stop, and fluency begin? And what about the dialect?
Fluency comes from the Latin word fluentem meaning “to flow.” Being fluent means a person is native-level proficient, able to speak and write quickly in a given language. They were raised speaking the language or have spoken it long enough to become proficient in it. Their accent is either non-existent or barely recognizable.
Accent originally comes from Latin accentus which means “a song added to speech.” In simple words, it’s simply a way to pronounce words. Linguists say that accent only affects pronunciation, not vocabulary or grammar. The accent of people living in the South of England is very different to those living up North making it hard to understand one another.
Dialect is a version of a language that affects pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar, and may restrict language understanding. For example, an American person would ask “Would you like some tea?”, while a person from the UK might instead say, “Fancy a cuppa?”
The Council of Europe’s Common European Framework of References (CEFR) for Languages groups language learners into different proficiency levels, where fluency and accuracy are just two of many examined criteria.
The CEFR divides proficiency into six levels – A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. A corresponds to “Basic” levels, B to “Independent”, and C to “Proficient.”
The six levels of language proficiency:
A1: The user can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.
A2: The user can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
B1: Can deal with most daily life situations likely to arise whilst travelling in an area where the language is spoken. Can describe experiences and events, dreams and ambitions and give brief reasons for opinions and goals.
B2: Can understand the main ideas around complex texts on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions and will have achieved a degree of fluency and spontaneity, which makes interaction with native speakers possible without significant strain for either party.
C1: Can understand a wide range of complicated, longer texts and recognise implicit meanings. Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for expressions and produce clear, well-structured and detailed text on complex subjects, showing controlled use of organisational patterns, connectors and cohesive devices.
C2: Can understand virtually everything heard or read and summarise information from different sources. Can express him/herself spontaneously, very fluently and precisely, differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations.
Fancy checking your level of English language fluency?
Take a quick language test here: https://www.languagelevel.com/english/index.php
Reference: https://rm.coe.int/CoERMPublicCommonSearchServices/DisplayDCTMContent?documentId=090000168045bc7b
