The ILR (FSI) proficiency scale

The ILR (FSI) proficiency scale

Description
	The Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) scale is a set of descriptions of abilities to communicate in a language. It was originally developed by the United States Foreign Service Institute, and is still widely known as the FSI scale. It consists of descriptions of five levels of language proficiency.

Levels
	Click on the level for which you would like to see the definition:
	Elementary proficiency (S-1) Limited Working proficiency (S-2) Professional Working proficiency (S-3) Full Professional proficiency (S-4) Native or Bilingual proficiency (S-5)

Sources
	These descriptions are a product of U.S. Government grants and are in the public domain. They are cited here from Higgs 1984, Appendix B.

See also
	Much of the material in the Language Learning workshop about developing your proficiency has been built around a slightly different scale called the ACTFL Guidelines. For a comparison of the ILR and ACTFL scales, see
	What is a Proficiency scale? Correspondence of proficiency scales

Context for this page:

Structure module: ILR (FSI) scale
In overview module: Information to help you check your progress
In modular book: Managing Your Language Learning Program, by Carol J. Orwig
In bookshelf: Language Learning

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 15 September 1998

© 1999 SIL International