What can you do with a C1 level in English?

A C1 level of English allows for a full range of functionality at work or in an academic setting. The C1 level would allow for full autonomy in a native English-speaking country.

C1 level English skills

The official can-do statements are broken down into smaller chunks for teaching purposes. This more detailed skill breakdown can help you assess your own English level, or help a teacher assess a student’s level. For example, a student at the C1 level in English will be able to do all the things that a student in level B2 can do, and in addition he will be able to:

• Discuss in detail issues related to success, including building a motivated, successful team.
• Talk in some detail about your favorite paintings and the architecture of buildings that you like.
• Discuss societal problems, possible solutions for problems and what role corporations can play.
• Participate in discussions about conservation, sustainability and habitat protection.
• Talk about events and issues in the news and how they affect people and companies.
• Talk about risks in life, including changing jobs and doing dangerous sports.
• Compare and contrast various forms of education and individual schools.
• Discuss various types of humor, including subtle forms like sarcasm.
• Understand various communication styles, including direct, indirect, formal and informal.
• Discuss issues related to your quality of life, including work-life balance and home environment.
• Understand and discuss issues related to ethics, like civil disobedience.

Although progress will depend on the type of course and the individual student, students can expect to reach the C1 level in English with 800 hours of cumulative instruction.

Skills in detail:

Listening:

• Can understand enough to follow extended speech on abstract and complex topics beyond his/her own field, though he/she may need to confirm occasional details, especially if the accent is unfamiliar.
• Can recognise a wide range of idiomatic expressions and colloquialisms, appreciating register shifts.
• Can follow extended speech even when it is not clearly structured and when relationships are only implied and not signalled explicitly.
• Can easily follow complex interactions between third parties in group discussion and debate, even on abstract, complex unfamiliar topics
• Can follow most lectures, discussions and debates with relative ease.
• Can extract specific information from poor quality, audibly distorted public announcements e.g. in a station, sports stadium etc.
• Can understand complex technical information, such as operating instructions, specifications for familiar products and services.
• Can understand a wide range of recorded and broadcast audio material, including some non-standard usage, and identify finer points of detail including implicit attitudes and relationships between speakers.
• Can follow films employing a considerable degree of slang and idiomatic usage.

Reading:

• Can understand in detail lengthy, complex texts, whether or not they relate to his/her own area of speciality, provided he/she can reread difficult sections.
• Can understand any correspondence given the occasional use of a dictionary.
• Can understand in detail a wide range of lengthy, complex texts likely to be encountered in social, professional or academic life, identifying finer points of detail including attitudes and implied as well as stated opinions.
• Can understand in detail lengthy, complex instructions on a new machine or procedure, whether or not the instructions relate to his/her own area of speciality, provided he/she can reread difficult sections.

Speaking:

• Can express him/herself fluently and spontaneously, almost effortlessly. Has a good command of a broad lexical repertoire allowing gaps to be readily overcome with circumlocutions. There is little obvious searching for expressions or avoidance strategies; only a conceptually difficult subject can hinder a natural, smooth flow of language.
• Can understand in detail speech on abstract and complex topics of a specialist nature beyond his/her own field, though he/she may need to confirm occasional details, especially if the accent is unfamiliar.
• Can use language flexibly and effectively for social purposes, including emotional, allusive and joking usage.
• Can easily follow and contribute to complex interactions between third parties in group discussion even on abstract, complex unfamiliar topics.
• Can easily keep up with the debate, even on abstract, complex unfamiliar topics.
• Can argue a formal position convincingly, responding to questions and comments and answering complex lines of counter argument fluently, spontaneously and appropriately.
• Can participate fully in an interview, as either interviewer or interviewee, expanding and developing the point being discussed fluently without any support, and handling interjections well.
• Can deliver announcements fluently, almost effortlessly, using stress and intonation to convey finer shades of meaning precisely.
• Can give a clear, well-structured presentation of a complex subject, expanding and supporting points of view at some length with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples.
• Can handle interjections well, responding spontaneously and almost effortlessly.

Writing:

• Can express him/herself with clarity and precision, relating to the addressee flexibly and effectively.
• Can express him/herself with clarity and precision in personal correspondence, using language flexibly and effectively, including emotional, allusive and joking usage.
• Can give clear, detailed descriptions and presentations on complex subjects, integrating sub themes, developing particular points and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.
• Can give clear, detailed descriptions of complex subjects.
• Can give elaborate descriptions and narratives, integrating sub themes, developing particular points and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.
• Can write clear, well-structured texts of complex subjects, underlining the relevant salient issues, expanding and supporting points of view at some length with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples, and rounding off with an appropriate conclusion.
• Can write clear, detailed, well-structured and developed descriptions and imaginative texts in an assured, personal, natural style appropriate to the reader in mind.
• Can write clear, well-structured expositions of complex subjects, underlining the relevant salient issues.
• Can expand and support points of view at some length with subsidiary points, reasons and relevant examples.

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