This is why I don’t use a level test

This is why I don’t use a level test.

In one session this week we covered a company presentation, technical products, transport, steel plants and mortar. Then wine tasting, football and school sports.

That was the point. I wasn’t deciding between B1 and B2. I was listening for whether they could keep going when the word didn’t come, and whether they stayed in English when the conversation turned somewhere they hadn’t prepared for.

A level tells you what someone knows. An hour of real conversation tells you what they do with it.

You already do both of those things in German. Finding another way to say something is something you did twice yesterday without noticing.

Quick win: When the English word doesn’t come, say what the thing does. “The stuff you put between the bricks.” Mortar. The conversation carries on.