Lesson 1: Build a language baseline

Find the forms and words that fail during real meaning, not a test category to game.

~12 MINUTES TO LEARN · 60 MINUTES TO PRODUCE BASELINE

Output reveals the system

“Intermediate” describes a wide range. A useful baseline records what happens when grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and comprehension must work together. CEFR treats language competence as a profile across linguistic, pragmatic, phonological, receptive, productive, and interactive abilities, not one score.[1]

Produce four samples

  1. Speak: explain a recent decision for two minutes without notes.
  2. Write: explain the same decision in 180-220 words.
  3. Listen: complete one British Council B2 task, then reconstruct five exact phrases before checking the transcript.
  4. Read: take one B2 article; underline every sentence whose grammar or vocabulary blocks precise meaning.

Tag exact gaps

Form: wrong word order, tense, article, agreement, clause, or verb pattern

Meaning: chosen form expresses wrong time, certainty, quantity, or relationship

Vocabulary: missing word family, collocation, connotation, or register

Sound: known language not recognised or not intelligible in speech

Copy the exact sentence or timestamp. Replace “grammar weak” with evidence such as “used past simple where unfinished duration required present perfect continuous.”

Controlled practice

  1. Underline every finite verb in spoken transcript.
  2. Circle every noun phrase and check article or quantifier.
  3. Box every clause connector and name relationship.
  4. Highlight repeated vague words such as thing, good, bad, do.
  5. Mark every pause caused by missing language.
  6. Compare 5 listening differences with transcript.
  7. Choose 3 errors that recur, not 3 isolated mistakes.
  8. Write one contrast and retest sentence per recurring gap.
Check analysis quality

Useful analysis cites exact evidence, identifies form or meaning contrast, and creates a new retest. A broad label such as “vocabulary weak” is not enough.

Shortcut that works

Do not promote a gap after one mistake. Look for same failure 3 times or one failure that seriously changes meaning.

Production lab

Retrieval practice

Your win: four raw samples and three recurring language gaps ranked by frequency and communicative impact.

Primary source

Use the Council of Europe CEFR Companion Volume to see language ability as a profile; use British Council B2 listening for the audio sample.

Ask your teaching agent to annotate exact gaps without rewriting the whole sample.

Reference: practice loopsNext: sentence engine