Level Descriptions

Level I

Level I ranges from “Beginner to High-Beginner” with a score range of 0-47 on the English Placement Test (EPT). This level covers the fundamental skills of English and prepares students for the Level II courses. Some students start this level knowing no English (complete beginners) while others can take part in basic conversations about topics such as family, school, shopping, the weather, etc. By the end of this level, students should be able to express themselves in the present, simple progressive, future, and simple past; understand short listening passages and written texts; take part in conversations or give a short presentation on familiar topics; write simple and compound sentences correctly; and, develop a 4-10 sentence paragraph.

Level II

Level II ranges from “Low-Intermediate to Intermediate” with a score range of 48-74 on the English Placement Test (EPT). This level covers the transitional skills of English; reinforces the fundamental skills of Level I, then transitions students to meet the proficiency level necessary for Level III courses. By the end of this level, students should be able to express their opinion in some detail on a variety of topics; to use present, future, past, and perfect tenses; to understand simple academic texts; to understand simple academic lectures; to give a short presentation on an assigned topic; to write simple, compound, and complex sentences correctly and use appropriate connectors; and to write a variety of 5-paragrpah essays.

Level III

Level III ranges from “Low-Advanced to Advanced” with a score range of 75-100 on the English Placement Test (EPT). This level reinforces Level II skills and prepares students for academic level work that will be required once they matriculate. By the end of this level, students should be able to understand and express ideas in detail on a variety of topics; to use tenses correctly; to show flexibility in the use of different sentence structures; to give a presentation on an academic topic; to understand a college-level lecture; to understand academic texts; and to write academic-level summaries, essays, and a 1,500 word research paper.

Movement Between Levels

The placement tool used to determine level placement and movement between levels is the English Placement Test (EPT) developed by the University of Michigan English Language Institute. It is a 100-item multiple-choice test, covering listening comprehension of short utterances, grammar in conversational contexts, a selection of high frequency vocabulary to fit the context of single sentences, and reading comprehension of sentences. Students take the EPT at the beginning of each term and the cut-off scores set by the EPT developers are used to place students into the appropriate level. To complement the EPT, a writing component was added. It consists of a 30-minute timed writing, scored using an internally developed rubric. At the end of each term, students are given a different form of the EPT as a post-test. The difference between the students’ scores on the pre- and post-test is a measure of the improvement of their overall proficiency and is one of the criteria used to determine future placement.