Teachers love to measure things, and language teachers are no exception. Can you guess what language teachers love to measure most? Student proficiency levels! There are assessments for reading, writing, speaking, and listening, but the most commonly used is the OPI, or Oral Proficiency Interview. The purpose of these assessments is to gauge how well students can use the target language in real-life situations.

How to use the interactive chart above

The chart above, created by the American Council on Teaching Foreign Languages (ACTFL), was originally static. At Critical Language Service, we decided to give it a technological upgrade because we're big fans of the SAMR model and love innovating.

In this upgraded version, if you click on the dots next to each sublevel, you'll see videos of students of Arabic at that proficiency level undergoing OPIs. This allows both teachers and students to read the proficiency descriptions and then see what they really mean in practice.

Proficiency tests are important because employers and schools often use them to screen candidates or award credit. We at Critical Language Service love this for two reasons:

1) Several of our students have earned university and high school credits through our Arabic courses this way.

2) It ensures that people with the right skills get the credit they deserve, rather than relying on grades that are highly subjective.