9 | Fluent with only very occasional repetition or self-correction. Any hesitation that occurs is used only to prepare the content of the next utterance and not to find words or grammar. Speech is situationally appropriate and cohesive features are fully acceptable. Topic development is fully coherent and appropriately extended. | Total flexibility and precise use in all contexts. Sustained use of accurate and idiomatic language. | Structures are precise and accurate at all times, apart from the 'mistakes' characteristic of native speaker speech. | Uses a full range of phonological features to convey precise and/or subtle meaning. Flexible use of features of connected speech is sustained throughout. Can be effortlessly understood throughout. Accent has no effect on intelligibility. |
8 | Fluent with only very occasional repetition or self-correction. Hesitation may occasionally be used to find words or grammar, but most will be content related. Topic development is coherent, appropriate and relevant. | Wide resource, readily and flexibly used to discuss all topics and convey precise meaning. Skilful use of less common and idiomatic items despite occasional inaccuracies in word choice and collocation. Effective use of paraphrase as required. | Wide range of structures, flexibly used. The majority of sentences are error-free. Occasional inappropriacies and non-systematic errors occur. A few basic errors may persist. | Uses a wide range of phonological features to convey precise and/or subtle meaning. Can sustain an appropriate rhythm. Flexible use of stress and intonation across long utterances, despite occasional lapses. Can be easily understood throughout. Accent has minimal effect on intelligibility. |
7 | Able to keep going and readily produce long turns without noticeable effort. Some hesitation, repetition and/or self- correction may occur, often mid-sentence and indicate problems with accessing appropriate language. However, these will not affect coherence. Flexible use of spoken discourse markers, connectives and cohesive features. | Resource flexibly used to discuss a variety of topics. Some ability to use less common and idiomatic items and an awareness of style and collocation is evident though in appropriacies occur. Effective use of paraphrase as required. | A range of structures is flexibly used. Error-free sentences are frequent. Both simple and complex sentences are used effectively despite some errors. A few basic errors persist. | Displays all the positive features of band 6 , and some, but not all, of the positive features of band 8 . |
6 | Able to keep going and demonstrates a willingness to produce long tums. Coherence may be lost at times as a result of hesitation, repetition and/or self-correction. Uses a range of spoken discourse markers, connectives and cohesive features though not always appropriately. | Resource sufficient to discuss topics at length. Vocabulary use may be inappropriate but meaning is clear. Generally able to paraphrase successfully. | Produces a mix of short and complex sentence forms and a variety of structures with limited flexibility. Though errors frequently occur in complex structures, these rarely impede communication. | Uses a range of phonological features, but control is variable. Chunking is generally appropriate, but rhythm may be affected by a lack of stress-timing and/or a rapid speech rate. Some effective use of intonation and stress, but this is not sustained. Individual words or phonemes may be mispronounced but this causes only occasional lack of clarity. Can generally be understood throughout without much effort. |
