Upper-Intermediate: what is it

During many years of practical training, you trained your English language, during which you went deeper into work on vocabulary, mastering the basics of oral and written speech. And now you want to check whether your level is English.

What is the Upper-Intermediate

In general, the result of your training was to be an adequate perception of the original, including spontaneous, emotionally colored, dialogical and monologic oral speech of the English speaker, teacher or interlocutor in recording or direct communication. Let's enumerate in more detail the skills that indicate the level of Upper-Intermediate, below:

- Possession of dialogical and monologic speech in situations of formal and informal communication of various subjects (indicated below);

- expressive speaking, a demonstrative statement of thought using a variety of grammar and vocabulary;

- Ability to make an oral report, report, conduct interviews;

- discussion of read and heard original texts (including journalistic texts);

- Conducting a conversation or dialogue of a problem nature with the use of adequate speech formulas;

- active participation in the discussion, conversation, confident assertion of one's point of view;

- evaluating the statements of other people in terms of the correctness and content of the language form.

The above skills can be achieved by doing, for example, the textbook "New English File Upper-Intermediate".

As for reading, your skills and abilities should be manifested in improving all types of reading (learning, learning, searching and viewing). And on their basis you must extract from the material the emotional, ideological, aesthetic and semantic information contained in it on the basis of meaningful and linguistic analysis.

You should also punctuate, spelling and graphically competently write various written works; Express their ideas and thoughts in written speech of various kinds (essays, letters, summaries, annotations, literary references); Explain and correct lexical, spelling, stylistic and grammatical errors in the written text presented to you.

When studying well-known publications, for example, "Opportunities Upper-Intermediate", your lexical stock should be at least 3000 units, close to the list below with the situation-thematic characteristics of topics. The above includes the subject content of permissible communication, various situations of a social nature, speech meta-language means and tasks for adequate speech, presented in the form of a monologue or dialogue.

List of topics studied

An approximate subject-thematic list, mastered in the study of the most famous methodological complexes, for example, "Headway Upper-Intermediate".

Sphere of personal and social communication:

1. The appearance of a person.

2. The nature of the person, mood, manners, behavior. Psychological types of people, traits of a person's character (positive and negative), types of emotional state of a person, manners, norms of good behavior.

3. Relationships. Love. Family life.

4. Phobias and mania. Faith and superstition. Ways to overcome fears.

5. Crime and Punishment. Types of crimes. The reasons for the growth of crime. Prison as a measure of punishment. Juvenile crime.

Sphere of domestic and social communication:

1. Our house. Home repairs. Buying a house. The homeless.

2. Health. Diseases. Health care.

Sphere of social-cognitive communication:

1. The world of animals. Problems of conservation of endangered species of animals. Environment and civilization, sources of environmental pollution. Problems of preservation of the environment.

Sphere of professional communication. Scope of work:

1. Work. The right choice of profession. Representatives of atypical occupations. Personality of the teacher, his human and professional qualities.

Sphere of political and public life:

1. News.

2. Policy. Pros and cons of a political career. Political parties. Personality policy.

3. Developing countries and their problems. Need, poverty. Charity Organisations.

The sphere of social-cognitive and socio-cultural communication:

1. Advertising on television and radio, commercial video production.

Sphere of social and cultural communication:

1. Music. Music in our lives: classical, popular, folk, jazz. Youth and pop music.

English Upper-Intermediate, in its turn, has its own classification. Let's consider various stages related to this level.

On speaking. Characteristics of excellent skills

Let's start with the highest requirements, which are mastered by the student in the course of studying any high-quality textbook of this level (for example, New English File Upper-Intermediate).

Mandatory full and adequate implementation of communicative intentions within the wide range of diverse situations. A fluent, well-organized speech. Absence of a pronounced emphasis. Appropriate and correct use of vocabulary and grammatical structures.

Characteristic of an excellent level

The next level of Upper-Intermediate is the complete realization of communicative intentions. A fluent speech with small hezitational pauses and compositional deviations. Rich vocabulary. The correctness of using a variety of grammatical formulas. Rare and insignificant reservations and mistakes that do not reduce the effectiveness of speech. The emphasis is on an insignificant level.

Characteristic above average level

Confident realization of communicative intentions in the above situations. A good fluent speech with very little hestitious pauses and compositional deviations, which are caused by the difficulty of correctly forming the content of speech and / or the choice of means of expression. The presence of reservations, errors in the use of grammatical structures and / or in the use of words, which generally do not interfere with the achievement of communicative goals. Noticeable accent.

Characteristics of the average level of Upper-Intermediate: what is it

Completely adequate implementation of the communicative process in the above situations. Satisfactory fluent speech. Minor violations of the compositional structure of the text. Presence of hezitational pauses. The presence of noticeable reservations and errors in the use of grammatical structures and words. Violation of the norms of pronunciation that can make understanding difficult.

Characteristic below average

Inability to fully realize the communicative intention. Limited volume of the statement. Quite frequent compositional and logical breaks of the narrative. Insufficient fluent speech and the presence of a large number of hezitational pauses. Common mistakes and reservations in the use of grammatical structures and vocabulary. Violation of pronunciation rules that make understanding difficult.

About the letter. Excellent command of writing

Let's start with the highest skills of Upper-Intermediate. What this level includes, its features and characteristics will be discussed below.

A rich idiomatic and phraseological vocabulary, corresponding to the norms of modern English. There are no spelling errors. Absolutely appropriate and correct use of grammatical formulas. Exact correspondence to the set communicative tasks. Absolutely reasoned and complete narrative, a description of events, objects or presentation of ideas, points of view. Consistent and logical development of the plot and idea. Full compliance with the style and genre of the written work. Accurate and appropriate use of various artistic means of expressiveness.

This level of language proficiency can only be provided by quality teaching materials (for example, "English File Upper-Intermediate").

Excellent command of the letter

A saturated idiomatic dictionary, sufficiently appropriate to the norms of modern language. Less than one spelling, grammatical or lexical error per hundred word forms. Some deviations in the use of grammatical constructions. Correspondence of the communicative task. Argumented and complete narration, a description of events, objects or presentation of his vision of an object. Logical development of the plot and ideas. Matching the style and genre of the written work. Correct means of expressiveness are used.

Good writing skills

A good vocabulary, appropriately used, is generally literate English. Upper-Intermediate of a good level does not allow more than one spelling, grammatical or lexical error to occur per 100 word forms. Some deviations are observed in the use of grammatical constructions. Correspondence to communicative tasks is quite accurate. In general, a convincing and complete narrative, a description of events, subjects, and an easily accessible narrative of your own thoughts and ideas. Some logical deviations and lack of consistency in the development of the plot. Separate moments of discrepancy between style and genre.

Average level of written speech

In general, the dictionary set is satisfactory. However, the stock of words is limited, there are errors in the selection of a suitable word. No more than two grammatical, spelling or lexical errors per 100 word forms. Some cases of using grammatical constructions make it difficult to understand the meaning of the written. The letter corresponds to the communicative task. Deviations from the sequence and logic of the development of the plot and the idea are observed. Limited choice of means of artistic expressiveness. Genre and style do not meet the standards.

Written speech at below-average level

This level of Upper-Intermediate has a limited vocabulary. There are significant errors in the use and choice of words. No more than three orthographic, grammatical or lexical errors per 100 word forms. Quite serious violations observed in the use of grammatical constructions. The idea represented in the communicative task is reflected, but not realized in full, due to the lack of clarity of presentation and convincing arguments in favor of one or another point of view. There are inconsistencies in the sequence and logic of presentation, genres and styles are mixed.

Having reached your goal, put before you new, even more complex tasks. The Advanced level is the next peak, which only those who are able to conquer themselves and get into the endless linguistic spaces will be able to conquer.