Training listening skills in CEFR English level B1

Overall listening skills

• Can understand simple factual information clearly expressed in a familiar voice on daily life and work matters.
• Can identify main ideas in clearly presented speeches on common topics in life, work or school, including stories clearly expressed in common standard dialect.

Listening to the interaction between native speakers or those who are not directly conversing with

• Can get the main ideas of extended conversations if the speech is clearly expressed in the standard language.

Listening to presentations and conversations

• Can follow and understand the outlines of short, simple talks on familiar topics if delivered in a clear, standard voice.
• Can follow and understand lectures or conversations on familiar topics or within one’s area of expertise when it is presented in a simple and well-structured manner.

Listening to announcements, guidelines, instructions

• Can understand and follow simple technical information such as operating instructions for commonly used equipment.
• Can understand detailed instructions (e.g. traffic instructions).

Listening to the radio and watching television

• Can get the main points of radio news programs and interviews, reports, newsreels with illustrations for the explicit plot content and simple language. 
• Can grasp the main points of radio and television programs on familiar topics and are expressed relatively slowly and clearly.

Training speaking skills in CEFR English level B1

Overall monologue skills:

• Can communicate with relative confidence on familiar matters related to their interests, studies and occupation. Can exchange, check and confirm information, explain problems that arise. Can express opinions on cultural topics such as movies, books, music, etc.
• Can engage in conversations on familiar topics without preparation, express personal views and exchange information on familiar topics related to personal interests, study, work or daily life.

Monologue: Describing the experience

• Can give simple descriptions of familiar topics in the area of interest.
• Can present, describe in simple discourses a short story with close content on familiar topics.
• Can tell in detail about personal experiences, the plot of a good book, movie, and personal feelings.
• Can talk about dreams, hopes and aspirations, real or fictional events.

Monologue: Argument

• Can argue clearly, strengthen their point of view with appropriate arguments and illustrative examples.
• Can generate a logical sequence of arguments.
• Can argue for a particular opinion by delivering the pros and cons of each option.

Monologue: Presenting to the audiences

• Can give a simple, rehearsed presentation on a familiar topic or the areas of interest clearly, so the audience can easily follow, as the main points are precisely explained.
• Can answer questions about the presentation but sometimes need repetition if the questions are asked too fast.

Overall interactive speaking:

• Can use simple language to deal with most situations that may arise while travelling.
• Can initiate conversations on familiar topics without preparation, express personal opinions and exchange information on familiar daily life topics.
• Can communicate relatively confidence on familiar and unfamiliar matters related to their area of expertise or interest. Can exchange, check and confirm information, handle uncommon situations and solve problems. Can express thoughts on cultural topics, abstract nature such as movies, music, etc.

Interactive speaking: Conversations

• Can join in the conversations on familiar topics without preparation, but sometimes struggle to express the ideas exactly.
• Can understand direct speech in daily conversation, although occasionally have to ask for repetition of specific words and phrases. 
• Can express emotions and react to surprise, happiness, sadness, concern, and unconcern.

Interactive speaking: Transaction of goods and services

• Can handle most situations arising while travelling, organise a trip such as booking, handling the procedure process with competent authorities when coming to another country.
• Can handle unusual situations in stores, post offices, banks such as returns of goods or product complaints.
• Can explain an arisen problem and clarify why the service provider or customer has to make concessions.

Interactive speaking: Interview

• Can come up with ideas during the interview (e.g., mentioning a new topic) but depends on the interaction with the interviewer.
• Can use pre-prepared questions and answers to conduct the interview but still respond to random questions.
• Can provide the specific information requested in an interview/consultation (e.g., job application) with limited accuracy.
• Can conduct the interviews, check and confirm the information, although sometimes have to ask for repetition.

Pronunciation and fluency

• The pronunciation is clear and easy to understand, although it sounds unnatural and mispronounced sometimes.
• Can speak at length but understandable despite having difficulty using structure and vocabulary, especially when speaking freely and long. 

Accuracy and conformance of sociolinguistics

• Can use basic vocabulary/grammar well but still have difficulty expressing complex thoughts or unfamiliar topics or situations.
• Can communicate in various common situations, using appropriate language.
• Be aware of politeness and appropriate behaviour according to the role and daily communication situations at school and work.

Training reading skills in CEFR English level B1

Overall reading skills

• Can read and understand the texts containing clear information on topics related to their field, interest and concern.

Reading for information and argument.

• Can identify key conclusions in the argumentative document using explicit linguistic cues.
• Can identify the logical argumentative points of the material being read, though not necessarily in detail.

Reading for orientation

• Can find out and understand the relevant information in daily used documents such as letters, fact sheets, and short documents.

Reading correspondence

• Can understand sufficiently the descriptions of events, feelings, and congratulations in personal correspondence to respond to the sender.
• Can understand the clear and coherent written instruction manual for specific equipment.

Reading for word processing.

• Can collate and compare short pieces of information from several sources and summarise the content.
• Can rephrase short passages of a document simply, using the words and structures of the original texts.

Training writing skills in CEFR English level B1

Overall production writing

• Can write simple, coherent articles on personal interest or familiar topics by connecting the isolated factors into structured writing.

Production writing: Creative writing

• Can describe familiar topics in the area of interest detailed and understandable.
• Can write a simple and coherent article about experiences, describe feelings and reactions.
• Can describe a recent event or trip (real or fictional).
• Can retell a story by writing.

Production writing: Writing reports and essays

• Can write simple, concise essays on topics of personal interest.
• Can summarise reports and express opinions on factual information accumulated from familiar issues that occur every day. 
• Can write concise reports in a standard format, provide factual information and reasons for recommendations made in the report.

Interactive Writing: Overall interactive writing

• Can communicate information and opinions on specific and abstract topics, check the information, ask and explain the problems logically.
• Can write personal letters, ask questions or transmit simple information of direct relevant matters, resolve the points that are considered important.

Interactive Writing: Correspondence

• Can write personal letters describing detailed experiences, feelings, events.
• Can write business correspondence to provide personal information, express thoughts on work and study matters, and topics about culture, music, movies.

Interactive Writing: Taking notes, Texting and filling in forms

• Can write simple informational notes about friends, services staff, teachers, and people that often meet in everyday life, clarifying the important points in messages.
• Can understand message contents about requests or problem explanations.

Word processing

• Can collect short information from several sources and summarise that information for others. Can rephrase passages in a simple style, using the phraseology and sequence of the original texts.

Common language criteria

• Have sufficient vocabulary to describe unpredictable situations, explain the main points of the problem with reasonable accuracy, and express thoughts on abstract or cultural topics such as music and movies.
• Have sufficient vocabulary to express wishes with little hesitation or write prolixly about family, hobbies, passions, work, travel topics, and ongoing events, yet sometimes make some word repetition mistakes and struggle in delivering ideas due to vocabulary limitations.

Vocabulary range

• Has sufficient vocabulary to express oneself on most daily life topics such as family, habits, hobbies, work, travel, and current events; however, still wordily. 

Vocabulary Control

• Can control the essential vocabulary well. However, there are still major errors in expressing complex thoughts or unfamiliar topics and situations.

Grammatical accuracy

• Communicate fairly accurately in familiar contexts; overall, good at controlling, though still being influenced significantly by mother tongue. Users still manage to express what they want

Orthographic accuracy

• Can write a generally coherent and understandable paragraph from the beginning to the conclusion with correct spelling, punctuation, and layout for the readers to follow.

Training Programme

English level B1 – CEFR includes classroom activities combined with the online review system. Step by step, each lesson will help students increase their English ability to meet the English level B1 – CEFR competency framework fully and confidently achieve the UK English level B1 – CEFR certificate

CEFR English level B1 Lessons:

• Lesson 1: Using Will and Going to make predictions
• Lesson 2: Distinguish Tell vs Say
• Lesson 3: Dinner with in-laws
• Lesson 4: Recreational activities
• Lesson 5: (Grammar) Past Simple and Past Perfect
• Lesson 6: Emphatic words
• Lesson 7: Fashion
• Lesson 8: Using Might, May and Will
• Lesson 9: Distinguish Who’s vs Whose
• Lesson 10: Sports
• Lesson 11: Adverbs
• Lesson 12: Distinguishing and using Must and Have to
• Lesson 13: The Love Story
• Lesson 14: Books and literature
• Lesson 15: (Grammar) Simple past tense
• Lesson 16: Using Should Have
• Lesson 17: Distinguish and use There vs They’re vs Their
• Lesson 18: Movies
• Lesson 19: The connection of words
• Lesson 20: Passive sentence
• Lesson 21: Crime
• Lesson 22: The Robbery
• Lesson 33: (Grammar) Present perfect continuous.
• Lesson 34: Distinguishing Look vs Watch vs See
• Lesson 35: (Grammar) Declarative Sentences
• Lesson 36: The Big Surprise
• Lesson 37: Communication
• Lesson 38: (Grammar) Phrasal verbs
• Lesson 39: Using Must/Can’t for assumptions
• Lesson 40: Cooking
• Lesson 41: Past Continuous
• Lesson 42: Distinguishing Listen vs Hear
• Lesson 43: (Grammar) Past Tense
• Lesson 44: The Haunted Castle
• Lesson 45: History
• Lesson 46: Conditional sentences type 2 and 3
• Lesson 47: Questions with Wh used with past tense
• Lesson 48: (Grammar) Future Continuous
• Lesson 49: The Seed
• Lesson 50: Education
• Lesson 51: Question tags
• Lesson 52: Distinguishing Shops and shopping
• Lesson 53: Comparatives and superlatives
• Lesson 54: My Best Friend’s Wedding

Preparation for the CEFR English level B1 exam

The preparation pack will help students familiarise themselves with London Language College’s global exam; be equipped with methods and ready mentality for the best completion of the exam process. 

In this section, learners are provided with:

• Sample tests
• Introduction of the exam process
• The process of marking and announcing the results
• Certification process if passed
• Re-examination process if not passed
• The mock test before the official exam.

Receptive skills after completing LRN CEFR B1

Listening skill

• I can understand the gist of a talk on familiar issues commonly encountered in school, leisure and work using clear, standard language.
• I can understand the gist of radio or television programs on current affairs or topics of interest when the speech is relatively slow and clear.

Reading Skills

• I can understand the main ideas of clear, standard texts on familiar issues commonly encountered in work or study.
• I can understand events, feelings through personal correspondence.

Interactive skills after completing LRN CEFR B1

Interactive speaking

• I can communicate unprepared on familiar everyday topics related to personal interests, life or daily news (e.g. family, hobbies, work, travel and ongoing events).

Interactive writing

• I can write simple, cohesive articles on topics of personal interest or familiarity.
• I can write a letter describing my experience or feeling.

Applicable skills after completing LRN CEFR B1

Speaking

• I can connect groups of words to narrate a story, event, dream, and hope.
• I can give reasons and explanations for my views and plans.
• I can tell a simple story about a book or movie and express my thoughts.

Writing

• I can write a simple, well-structured article on a topic of interest or familiarity.