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Interagency Language Roundtable Skill Level Descriptors

The Interagency Language Roundtable Skill Level Descriptors (ILR SLDs) is a scale that measures the ability to communicate and perform in a language. It is the standard grading scale for language proficiency in United States federal-level service and scores proficiency on a scale of 0 to 5.

A plus (+) designation, such as 0+, 1+, 2+, 3+, or 4+, is assigned when proficiency substantially exceeds one skill level but does not fully meet the criteria for the next level, resulting in a total of 11 possible grades.

Grades are assigned separately for different skills such as, reading, speaking, listening, writing, translation, audio translation, interpretation, intercultural communication.

Please see the table below for in depth descriptions of each level.

ILR 0+: Memorized Proficiency

Listening
  • Can comprehend only formulaic language in areas of immediate needs but insufficient for understanding of connected spoken language.
  • Can understand short, memorized words and phrases in areas of immediate needs if repeated, reworded, or accompanied by long pauses during participatory listening, and repeated or delivered at a slower than normal rate in non-participatory situations.
  • Misunderstandings arise due to ignoring or inaccurately hearing sounds or word endings, distorting the original meaning.
  • Can understand best those statements where context strongly supports the utterance’s meaning.
Reading
  • Can recognize and identify all the letters in the printed version of an alphabetic writing system, such as Spanish, Finnish, Russian, Greek, or Vietnamese, or high-frequency elements of a syllabary-based writing system, such as Japanese kana or Korean hangul, or some commonly occurring characters in a character system, such as Chinese, Japanese kanji, or Korean hanja.
  • Can read some isolated words and phrases, such as numbers, personal and place names, street signs, menus, and simple everyday material such as ads. The above are often interpreted inaccurately.
  • Unable to read connected prose.
Speaking
  • Able to satisfy immediate needs using rehearsed utterances with little real autonomy of expression or spontaneity.
  • Can ask questions or make statements with reasonable accuracy only with memorized utterances or formulae.
  • Can usually differentiate most significant sounds when produced in isolation but, when combined in words or groups of words, errors may be frequent.
  • Even with repetition, communication is severely limited even with people used to dealing with foreigners. Stress, intonation, tone, etc. are usually quite faulty.

ILR 0+: Memorized Proficiency

Listening
  • Can comprehend only formulaic language in areas of immediate needs but insufficient for understanding of connected spoken language.
  • Can understand short, memorized words and phrases in areas of immediate needs if repeated, reworded, or accompanied by long pauses during participatory listening, and repeated or delivered at a slower than normal rate in non-participatory situations.
  • Misunderstandings arise due to ignoring or inaccurately hearing sounds or word endings, distorting the original meaning.
Reading
  • Can recognize and identify all the letters in the printed version of an alphabetic writing system, such as Spanish, Finnish, Russian, Greek, or Vietnamese, or high-frequency elements of a syllabary-based writing system, such as Japanese kana or Korean hangul, or some commonly occurring characters in a character system, such as Chinese, Japanese kanji, or Korean hanja.
  • Can read some isolated words and phrases, such as numbers, personal and place names, street signs, menus, and simple everyday material such as ads. The above are often interpreted inaccurately.
  • Unable to read connected prose.
Speaking
  • Able to satisfy immediate needs using rehearsed utterances with little real autonomy of expression or spontaneity.
  • Can ask questions or make statements with reasonable accuracy only with memorized utterances or formulae.
  • Can usually differentiate most significant sounds when produced in isolation but, when combined in words or groups of words, errors may be frequent.
  • Even with repetition, communication is severely limited even with people used to dealing with foreigners. Stress, intonation, tone, etc. are usually quite faulty.

ILR 1: Elementary Proficiency

Listening
  • Can understand simple statements about his/her background and occupation.
  • Can understand routine questions about his/her job, immediate family and oneself.
  • Can understand basic directions and instructions, such as how to get to a local store, post office, or bank.
  • Can understand speech that is slow and clear in everyday conversation with people speaking the standard dialect.
  • Can understand questions and answers about basic survival needs, such as meals, lodging, transportation, time and simple directions, including both route instructions and orders from customs officials, policemen, etc.
  • If unable to understand what a speaker says, can understand the statement after it has been repeated or rephrased slowly and clearly.
Reading
  • Can understand the purpose and main meaning of very short, simple texts, such as printed personal notes, business ads, public announcements, maps, etc.
  • Can understand simple instructions, such as very straightforward street directions.
  • Can understand very short simple written descriptions of some familiar persons, places, and things.
  • Can read familiar formulaic verbal exchanges or simple language containing only the highest frequency structure and vocabulary, including shared international vocabulary and cognates.
  • Can get some main ideas and locate prominent items of professional significance in more complex texts.
  • Can identify general subject matter in some authentic texts.
Speaking
  • Can make social introductions and use greeting and leave-taking expressions.
  • Can typically satisfy predictable, simple, personal and accommodation needs; can generally meet courtesy, introduction, and identification requirements.
  • Can tell or ask someone how to get to a nearby hotel, restaurant, or post office.
  • Can ask and answer simple questions about date and place of birth, nationality, marital status, occupation, etc.
  • Can order a simple meal.
  • Can arrange for a hotel room or taxi ride.
  • Can buy a needed item such as a bus or train ticket, groceries, or clothing.
  • Can give information about business hours and explain routine procedures in a limited way.
  • Can formulate some questions.

ILR 2: Limited Working Proficiency

Listening
  • Can understand speech about everyday topics, such as common personal and family news, well-known current events, and routine situations at work.
  • Can understand spoken descriptions of different places, such as the geography of a country or familiar location.
  • Can usually understand the main idea and basic facts from a short news report on the radio or television.
  • When people are speaking the standard dialect at a normal rate, can understand their speech when it is spoken with some repetition and rephrasing.
  • Can understand uncomplicated stories about current, past, and future events.
  • Can comprehend factual content in interviews, presentations, news broadcasts, overheard conversations, telephone calls and messages, and recorded spoken language, but will typically miss inferences intended by the speaker.
Reading
  • Can understand texts that consist mainly of straightforward factual language, such as short news reports, biographical information, descriptions, or simple technical material.
  • Can understand the main idea and some details of clearly organized short straightforward texts about places, people, and events that he/she is familiar with.
  • Can understand very straightforward reports about current and past events.
  • Can understand simple typed correspondence in familiar contexts, including descriptions of events, feelings, wishes, and future plans.
  • Can usually understand the main ideas of authentic prose on topics he/she is familiar with.
  • Does not have a broad active vocabulary, but is able to use contextual and real-world cues to understand the text.
Speaking
  • Can handle conversations about familiar topics in an organized way.
  • Can produce speech with some organization on familiar topics that extend beyond daily routine.
  • Can describe present or most recent job or activity in some detail.
  • Can give detailed information about family, house, and community.
  • Can give a brief autobiography including immediate plans and hopes.
  • Can take and give simple messages over the telephone or leave a message on voice mail.
  • Can describe in detail a person or place that is very familiar to him/her.
  • Can report the facts of what he/she has seen recently on TV news or read in the newspaper.
  • Can talk about a trip or other everyday event that happened in the recent past or that will happen soon.

ILR 3: General Professional Proficiency

Listening
  • Can accurately follow all conversations among native speakers who are speaking at a normal rate of speech.
  • Can correctly infer meanings that are not directly stated.
  • Can understand discussions of ideas and concepts, including proposals and speculation.
  • Can understand someone’s opinion and the points used to support the opinion.
  • Can often, if not always, detect the attitudes and feelings of a speaker.
  • Can understand speech in a professional setting concerning his/her field of expertise or some technical subjects, such as a lecture or panel discussion.
  • Can understand spoken language containing complex grammar and a broad range of vocabulary, including commonly used slang, idiomatic expressions, and cultural references.
  • Can readily understand argumentation expressed through supported opinion and hypothesis.
Reading
  • Can usually read and understand all of the material in a major daily newspaper published in a city or country with which he/she is familiar.
  • Can “read between the lines” and understand meanings that are not directly stated in reading a newspaper or magazine that contains editorial or opinion content.
  • Can understand the author’s intent and follow the line of reasoning in texts that include hypothesis, persuasion, supported opinion, or argument for a position, such as editorials, debates, and op-ed pieces, with little or no use of a dictionary.
  • Can understand contemporary expository essays and literary prose with little or no use of a dictionary.
  • Can understand the main ideas and important details of almost all material written within his/her particular professional field or area of primary interest, such as reports, analyses, arguments, etc.
Speaking
  • Feels that he/she has a professional command, rather than just a practical one, of the language.
  • Rarely finds oneself unable to finish a sentence because of linguistic limitations.
  • Finds it easy to follow and contribute to a conversation among native speakers.
  • Can speak to a group of educated native speakers on a professional subject and be sure he/she is communicating what he/she wants to, without obviously irritating them linguistically.
  • Can, on a social occasion, defend personal opinions about social and cultural topics.
  • Can cope with difficult situations such as broken-down plumbing, an undeserved traffic ticket, or a serious social or diplomatic blunder.
  • Can use the language to speculate at length about abstract topics, such as how some change in history would have affected his/her life or civilization.
  • Able to adjust his/her speech to suit the audience, whether talking to university professors, friends, employees, or others.

ILR 4: Advanced Professional Proficiency

Listening
  • Can understand almost all forms and styles of speech pertinent to professional needs.
  • Can fully understand all speech that involves the use of extensive and precise vocabulary, including subtle distinctions between word choices.
  • Can follow arguments with unpredictable presentation, for example, in informal and formal speeches covering editorial and literary material.
  • Can understand language adjusted for different audiences and for different purposes.
  • Can readily and accurately infer meanings and implications.
  • Can fully understand spoken interactions among native speakers at public gatherings, such as meetings, seminars, task groups, or conferences.
  • Can fully understand a speech, oral report, or briefing given to a group of native speakers concerning any topic directed to a general audience.
Reading
  • Able to read fluently and accurately all styles and forms of the language pertinent to professional needs or personal interest without reference to a dictionary.
  • Can understand long and complex analyses, factual reports, and literary texts.
  • Can understand both the meaning and the intent of most uses of idioms, cultural references, word play, sarcasm, and irony in even highly abstract and culturally “loaded” texts.
  • Can understand language that has been especially adjusted for different situations, audiences, or purposes, such as a political essay, humorous anecdote or joke, sermon, or inflammatory broadside.
  • Can read virtually all forms of the written language, including abstract, linguistically complex texts such as specialized articles, essays, and literary works, including prose works from earlier periods.
  • Can read reasonably legible handwriting without difficulty.
Speaking
  • Consistently uses the language in a sophisticated and nuanced way to effectively communicate with great precision.
  • Practically never makes a grammatical mistake.
  • Can carry out any job assignment as effectively as if in their native language.
  • Can persuade someone effectively to take a course of action in a sensitive situation, such as reversing a decision or establishing a policy.
  • Can prepare and give a lecture at a professional meeting about his/her area of specialization and debate complex aspects with others.
  • Naturally integrates appropriate cultural and historical references in speech.
  • Can lead the direction of the discussion, whether friendly, controversial, or collaborative.

Can understand native speakers of the standard and other major dialects in essentially any face-to-face interaction.

ILR 5: Functionally Native Proficiency

Listening
  • Comprehension is fully equivalent to that of a well-educated native listener.
  • Can fully understand all forms and styles of speech, including slang, jokes, and puns.
  • Can understand speech even when it is distorted by other noise.
  • Can fully understand regional dialects, highly colloquial and idiomatic language.
  • Can understand the widest range of target language variations and the highest creative, philosophical, and aesthetic uses of the language.
  • Can often overcome highly unfavorable conditions.
  • Able to understand how natives think as they create discourse.
  • Able to understand extremely difficult and abstract speech.
Reading
  • Reading proficiency and accuracy of comprehension is functionally equivalent to that of the well-educated native reader.
  • Can read extremely difficult and abstract prose, such as general legal and technical writing, as well as highly colloquial writing.
  • Able to read literary texts, including contemporary prose, poetry, and theatrical writing.
  • Can read classical or archaic forms of literature.
  • Reads and understands a wide variety of vocabulary and idioms, slang, colloquialisms, and pertinent cultural references.
  • Can read all kinds of handwritten documents with varying degrees of difficulty.
Speaking
  • Proficiency is functionally equivalent to that of a highly articulate, well-educated native speaker and reflects the cultural standards of a country where the language is natively spoken.
  • Can use the language with complete flexibility and intuition, so that speech on all levels is fully accepted by well-educated native speakers in all of its features, including breadth of vocabulary and idiom, colloquialisms, and pertinent cultural references.
  • Pronunciation is consistent with that of well-educated, highly articulate native speakers of a standard dialect.
  • Vocabulary is extensive and precise, allowing the speaker to consistently convey complex ideas and details.