ABSTRACT
No spoken language checklist is perfect, but all have the potential to sharpen our awareness and, occasionally, to remind us of what we might otherwise overlook. The checklist now offered for scrutiny (which took as its startingpoint the levels proposed by Hilary Hester 1990) is divided into four stages:
Stage 1: for children new to learning English; Stage 2: for those becoming acquainted with the language; Stage 3: for those becoming confident as users of English; Stage 4: for experienced and near fluent users.
