The description for this level of Reference is framed around the social domains of communication, communication situations, written and spoken texts, communication strategies, conversation, topics, specific and general notions which are expected to be necessary for the use of the language in the communicative activities described below.
ICPFL demonstrates a basic general ability to interact in a limited number of foreseeable everyday communication situations. It is also expected that in the professional and study areas of the CIPLE users will be able to interact in communication situations requiring limited use of Portuguese, which is no different from general language use.
The description for this Reference Level is framed around the social domains of communication, communication situations, types of written and oral texts, communication strategies, conversation, topics, specific and general notions which are expected to be necessary for the use of languages in the communicative activities described below.
The grammatical and lexical structures foreseen for this level are necessary for the production and comprehension of the oral and written texts foreseen for this examination.
Language users are able to interact in a range of everyday, work and study communication situations requiring a largely predictable use of language.
There are four components to this test: Reading Comprehension, Written Expression, Listening Comprehension and Oral Expression.
The description for this Reference Level is framed around the social domain of communication, types of written and spoken texts, conversation, topics, specific and general notions, which, taken together, are expected to be fundamental to language use in the communicative activities described below, in the perspective of users who will use it in a culturally acceptable way. The description for Reference Level B2 also contains the sections: verbal interaction and discourse structure, sociocultural competence, compensation strategies, learning to learn and an appendix on pronunciation and intonation.
This level gives the user a degree of independence which enables him/her to interact in a variety of communicative situations. The user develops linguistic-communicative mechanisms, recognition and use of the main lexical-syntactic and syntactic-semantic structures of the language, which allow him/her greater flexibility and ability to use the language in less predictable situations; the user is able to move through communication strategies and has a greater awareness of registers (formal/informal) and social conventions, which allows him/her to develop mechanisms of socio-cultural appropriateness, thus extending his/her communicative competence.
The user is able to recognise and begin to use more common expressions, with the basic training already structured.
Comprehension of oral and written texts goes beyond mere comprehension of information, being able to distinguish main and secondary elements. Users are able to produce texts of various types.
This level enables users to work in contexts where Portuguese is the working language. In contexts where Portuguese is both a working language and a language of communication, there may be even more difficulties.
They may attend academic courses (e.g. in the context of university exchanges) or other courses.
ADPFL recognises an advanced level of knowledge of Portuguese.
Language users must be able to produce and recognise the lexical-semantic and syntactic-semantic structures of the language with confidence and knowledge in the oral and written texts foreseen for this level. They are aware of the intrinsic relationship of language to culture, including through idiomatic forms relating to the characterisation of people and events/situations, etc. forms of address, culturally marked conversations, and the need to communicate in a socially acceptable way. They are able to use language creatively and flexibly, interacting appropriately in predictable and unpredictable situations.
This level enables users to work in contexts in which Portuguese is the language of communication or other contexts in which Portuguese is the working language, and to attend academic courses.
UDPFL recognises a higher level of proficiency in Portuguese.
Users of Portuguese have a communicative competence, which enables them to use the language with great confidence and knowledge. There may be some difficulties in culturally marked areas such as humour, cultural implications and in very colloquial use, typical of idiomatic, social or regional variations. They are channels for increasing their active and passive vocabulary and for deepening the different registers of production of oral and written texts. This level allows them to deepen a cultural component of Portuguese in its linguistic (i.e. through the recognition and use of idiomatisms; recognition and potential use of prefixes and suffixes with idiomatically marked adjectives and adverbs, etc.) literary, historical and artistic aspects.
This level enables them to work with Portuguese, as a working language and/or language of communication at work, and to attend academic courses.