The English Profile programme is a collaborative research programme using corpus data and other tools to produce detailed RLDs* for English.
Vocabulary RLDs for levels A1 to B2: The English Profile Wordlists, available in 2011, will provide a complete searchable listing of the words and phrases in English that are considered to be within these levels. They will offer reliable information at word and sense level, based on extensive analysis of word frequency and learner use, using the Cambridge International Corpus, the British National Corpus, the Cambridge Learner Corpus, together with other sources, including the Cambridge ESOL vocabulary lists and classroom materials.
Other researchers are focusing on the development of RLDs in the areas of grammar and language functions, using empirical data from corpora and curricula to describe learning goals.
English Profile is also developing the Cambridge English Profile Corpus, which will include essays, coursework and spoken data, collected from participating teachers’ real or virtual classrooms.
Former specifications available online:
- Breakthrough specification (unpublished)
- Waystage 1990 (CUP)
- Threshold Level 1990 (CUP)
- Vantage (CUP)
Website: http://www.englishprofile.org/
Contact: englishprofle@cambridge.org
Please also consult the List of publications for the chronological list of Reference level descriptions and Threshold levels
**Reference Level Descriptions (RLD)
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