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What are the levels of proficiency in English and the vocabulary subsets at each level. As in how many words should a person know at each level of english proficiency and is there a reference list of this levels and vocabulary at each level. For example: beginner, intermediate, native, and on.

Mitch
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Greg Kawere
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    Hi, Greg, your question is off-topic and this is not a discussion forum. Please take the tour and visit our help center for additional guidance. You should capitalize engnlsih. –  Jan 24 '16 at 04:36
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    @Rathony - and you should speal engnlsih cerructly, – Hot Licks Jan 24 '16 at 04:52
  • Fluency is more than a matter of knowing a certain number of words. You'll need to master the grammar and idiom of the language. Good luck. – deadrat Jan 24 '16 at 05:05
  • @HotLicks Does it read that way? –  Jan 24 '16 at 05:06
  • The reason i asked is because we are in the process of creating a language learning app for african languages. So we are basically using english based templates as our base. So was doing research on creating that so neeeded that. – Greg Kawere Jan 24 '16 at 06:12
  • An app for speakers of African languages to learn English? Use the google on the phrase "core vocabulary English". – deadrat Jan 24 '16 at 06:17
  • The app is to help people learn african languages. Hence the need for English templates as a base. But thanks for thd tips – Greg Kawere Jan 24 '16 at 06:19
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    Maybe the phrasing of my question is open ended and wide. Let me rephrase as follows. What are the levels of proficiency for the english language and what are the vocabulary quantifies for each level of proficiency. I.e Basic, Proficient, Fluent, Native -- – Greg Kawere Jan 24 '16 at 07:12
  • @JEL Some may think 3,000 to 5,000 words are enough, some might think 10,000 is enough. The question could generate only primarily-opinion-based answers. –  Jan 24 '16 at 07:20
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    Just come across the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, it seems scientific so using that as a basis although it seems overtly academic. – Greg Kawere Jan 24 '16 at 07:27
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    Came here to suggest CERFL. Depending on your target languages "number of words" could be less meaningful or even totally irrelevant, depending on the grammar. It works reasonably well for an analytic language like English but less so if you happen to have an agglutinating language. – Azor Ahai -him- Jan 24 '16 at 07:57
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    @JEL I agree with you. :-) –  Jan 24 '16 at 10:07
  • I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because EL&U is neither an English exam center, nor specialized in "teaching" English as a second language. – Mari-Lou A Jan 24 '16 at 11:33

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CERFL, the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, is a guideline for progress in the learning of languages.

It specifies the level of mastery of language in 6 stages, A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 from beginner to mastery.

It doesn't specify expected vocabulary numbers for each stage but others have found them experimentally for different languages. For English, Milton and Alexiou (2009) found roughly: A1 - 1500, A2 - 2500, B1 - 3250, B2 - 3750, C1 - 4500, C2 - 5000.

Mitch
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