Proficiency Scales

In order to make judgments about the kinds of tasks a language speaker is able to perform, or to compare the abilities of different speakers, proficiency scales have been developed. These scales provide profiles of speakers at a number of levels, outlining the tasks a speaker can tackle, and the skill with which they can tackle them. Encompassing discreet areas of expertise such as fluency, vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar, a proficiency scale provides universal criteria against which an individual’s performance can be compared.

There are a number of popular proficiency scales – two of the main ones are the ACTFL scale, and the ILR scale. 

You can find information on what people can typically do at different proficiency levels according to the ACTFL scale here, and on the study time it might take to reach particular levels here.