American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

certifiesthat

CODY C MEYERS
TestType TestDate Language
Official OPIc 11/30/2012 Spanish

has qualified as an Advanced speaker according to the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines. The
speaker has demonstrated a minimum proficiency of Advanced Low, though the actual
performance may exceed the proficiency level described below.

Advanced

Director of Professional Programs

Date Issued 12/02/2012

LTI - The ACTFL Testing Office

Advanced - ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines 2012 Speaking

Advanced
SpeakersattheAdvancedLowsublevelareabletohandleavarietyofcommunicativetasks.Theyareableto
participateinmostinformalandsomeformalconversationsontopicsrelatedtoschool,home,andleisureactivities.
Theycanalsospeakaboutsometopicsrelatedtoemployment,currentevents,andmattersofpublicandcommunity
interest.
AdvancedLowspeakersdemonstratetheabilitytonarrateanddescribeinthemajortimeframesofpast,presentand
futureinparagraph-lengthdiscoursewithsomecontrolofaspect.Inthesenarrationsanddescriptions,AdvancedLow
speakerscombineandlinksentencesintoconnecteddiscourseofparagraphlength,althoughthesenarrationsand
descriptionstendtobehandledseparatelyratherthaninterwoven.Theycanhandleappropriatelytheessentiallinguistic
challengespresentedbyacomplicationoranunexpectedturnofevents.
ResponsesproducedbyAdvancedLowspeakersaretypicallynotlongerthanasingleparagraph.Thespeakers
dominantlanguagemaybeevidentintheuseoffalsecognates,literaltranslations,ortheoralparagraphstructureofthat
language.Attimestheirdiscoursemaybeminimalforthelevel,markedbyanirregularflow,andcontainingnoticeable
self-correction.Moregenerally,theperformanceofAdvancedLowspeakerstendstobeuneven.
AdvancedLowspeechistypicallymarkedbyacertaingrammaticalroughness(e.g.,inconsistentcontrolofverb
endings),buttheoverallperformanceoftheAdvanced-leveltasksissustained,albeitminimally.Thevocabularyof
AdvancedLowspeakersoftenlacksspecificity.Nevertheless,AdvancedLowspeakersareabletousecommunicative
strategiessuchasrephrasingandcircumlocution.
AdvancedLowspeakerscontributetotheconversationwithsufficientaccuracy,clarity,andprecisiontoconveytheir
intendedmessagewithoutmisrepresentationorconfusion.Theirspeechcanbeunderstoodbynativespeakers
unaccustomedtodealingwithnon-natives,eventhoughthismayrequiresomerepetitionorrestatement.When
attemptingtoperformfunctionsorhandletopicsassociatedwiththeSuperiorlevel,thelinguisticqualityandquantityof
theirspeechwilldeterioratesignificantly.