At ASC English, we believe that learning English is a step-by-step journey. To help students, families, and sponsors clearly understand progress, ASC uses a six-level Achievement Scale, ranging from beginner to advanced, along with specialized courses in TOEFL Preparation and Business English.

ASC English is a Boston-based language school offering comprehensive English language programs tailored for international students. Established in 1993, the school has built a strong community by providing high-quality instruction and support to learners at various proficiency levels.

ASC English is a Boston-based language school offering comprehensive English language programs tailored for international students. Established in 1993, the school has built a strong community by providing high-quality instruction and support to learners at various proficiency levels.

ASC English Achievement Scale

This scale describes what students can do at each level in reading, writing, listening, speaking, grammar, and pronunciation. Each level has measurable Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs), so students know exactly how their skills are developing and what they will be able to achieve by the time they complete the level.

How the Scale Works

  • Levels 1–2 (Beginner/High Beginner): Students learn to recognize the English alphabet, high-frequency words, and basic conversations, and express basic ideas clearly.

  • Levels 3–4 (Low Intermediate/ Intermediate): Students expand their vocabulary and grammar, allowing them to engage in more complex communication. They can understand longer texts, write structured paragraphs, and participate in discussions for a variety of daily purposes.

  • Levels 5–6 (High Intermediate/Advanced): Students achieve fluency and flexibility in English for academic (Level 6, only), professional, and real-world settings. At this stage, learners can write detailed essays, comprehend demanding texts and lectures, and communicate effectively at near-native proficiency.

Specialized Tracks

  • TOEFL Preparation: Focuses on strategies and practice for the Reading, Listening, Speaking, and Writing sections of the TOEFL exam, helping students achieve the test scores required for university admission.

  • Business English: Builds advanced communication skills for professional contexts, including presentations, meetings, and written reports, with emphasis on fluency, accuracy, and clarity in workplace settings.

Why This Matters

The Achievement Scale ensures that progress is transparent and meaningful. Students, parents, and sponsors can see how each level builds toward the next, with clear benchmarks along the way. Whether the goal is university admission, professional advancement, or daily communication, ASC’s scale provides a roadmap for success.

ASC Achievement Scale: Levels One - Six

Skill/Level

Level One

Level Two

Level Three

Level Four

Level Five

Level Six

Reading

At this level, learners can recognize the English alphabet and high frequency vocabulary words, enabling them to correctly extract overall meaning from common, everyday, textual sources

At this level, learners can recognize daily vocabulary and common sentence structures, enabling them to correctly extract meaning from textual sources.

At this level, learners can understand common written vocabulary and simple structures, enabling them to correctly extract overall meaning from simple, affirmative and negative statements as well as questions in textual sources.

At this level, learners can understand a range of written texts and recognize implicit meaning, allowing them to extract meaning from textual sources for social and daily life purposes.

At this level, learners can understand a wide range of demanding, longer written texts and recognize implicit meaning, allowing them to effectively and flexibly extract meaning from textual sources for social, daily life, and professional purposes. 

At this level, learners can understand, with ease, most general and academic written texts on familiar, unfamiliar, and abstract topics, allowing them to successfully comprehend information from different written sources in academic and professional settings.  

Writing

At this level, learners can form the English alphabet and use/spell high frequency vocabulary words, enabling them to meaningfully express basic ideas by correctly using common, everyday words and expressions in writing.

At this level, learners can write using daily vocabulary and common sentence structures, enabling them to meaningfully express ideas by correctly using common words and phrases to form simple and some slightly more complex sentences in writing.

At this level, learners can write using common vocabulary and simple structures, enabling them to meaningfully express ideas by correctly constructing simple, affirmative and negative statements as well as questions in writing. 

At this level, learners can  express themselves in writing using idioms, enabling them to produce well-structured written responses on a variety of social and daily life topics.   

At this level, learners can produce clear, well-structured, detailed texts on complex topics and show controlled use of organizational patterns and cohesive devices, allowing them to flexibly and effectively express themselves in writing for social, daily life, and professional purposes.  

At this level, learners can summarize information from different spoken and written sources and reconstruct arguments and accounts in a coherent composition, allowing them to write for classroom and professional situations at a near-native level. 

Listening

At this level, learners can recognize the English alphabet and high frequency vocabulary words, enabling them to correctly extract overall meaning from common, everyday, spoken sources.

At this level, learners can understand daily vocabulary and common sentence structures, enabling them to correctly extract meaning from spoken sources.

At this level, learners can understand common vocabulary and simple structures, enabling them to correctly extract overall meaning from simple, affirmative and negative statements as well as questions in spoken sources.

At this level, learners can understand a range of texts and recognize their implicit meaning, allowing them to extract meaning from spoken sources for social and daily life purposes. 

At this level, learners can understand a wide range of demanding, longer spoken texts and recognize implicit meaning, allowing them to effectively and flexibly extract meaning from spoken sources for social, daily life, and professional purposes.

At this level, learners can understand with ease most general and academic spoken texts on familiar, unfamiliar, and abstract topics and differentiating finer shades of meaning even in more complex situations, allowing them to successfully comprehend information from varying spoken sources in academic and professional settings.  

Speaking

At this level, learners can say the English alphabet and high frequency vocabulary words, enabling them to meaningfully express basic ideas by correctly producing common, everyday words and expressions in speech.

At this level, learners can speak using daily vocabulary and common sentence structures, enabling them to meaningfully express ideas by correctly using common words and phrases to form simple and some slightly more complex sentences in speech.

At this level, learners can speak using common vocabulary and simple structures, enabling them to meaningfully express level-appropriate ideas by correctly constructing simple, affirmative and negative statements as well as questions in speech.  

At this level, learners can spontaneously express themselves using idioms, enabling them to produce well-structured spoken responses on a variety of social and daily life topics.

At this level, learners can express themselves fluently and spontaneously without much effort searching for expressions, allowing them to flexibly and effectively use spoken English for social, daily life, and professional purposes. 

At this level, learners can  reconstruct arguments and accounts in a coherent presentation and express themselves spontaneously, fluently, and precisely, allowing them to communicate in classroom and professional settings regarding presentation skills and conveying opinions at a near-native level. 

Grammar

At this level, learners can understand the basic structures of English in the context of simple grammar based on models, ways to express routine activities, formulaic interactions, and describing experiences.

At this level, learners can use and understand slightly more complex grammatical structures including diverse sentence structures, topics, and tense grammar at a range of formality.

At this level, learners can use and understand more semantically and grammatically complex structures, forms, and functions to express a variety of tense, aspect, and modes of English verbal constructions.

At this level, learners can use and understand how to formulate intermediate grammatical constructions to indicate a range of level-appropriate modality, conditionality, clausal structure, or cohesive devices. 

At this level, learners can use and understand a range of pragmatic devices to express not only directness, politeness, voice, more information or detail but also do so through correct use of regular and irregular forms. 

At this level, learners can use and navigate advanced concepts of grammar such as all verb tenses (present, past, future), aspects (simple, continuous, perfect), and voice (active and passive), to relate complex concepts using every level of formality, conditionality, and syntactic constructions to convey high-level meaning. 

Pronunciation

At this level, learners can understand and produce the various sounds, vowels and consonants, that exist in English as well as the variations that occur, productively and receptively, in stress, rhythm, intonation, or lack thereof in basic interaction.

At this level, learners can break down the intricacies of how different speech types (interrogative, imperative, declarative, and exclamatory) are produced in English, how sounds change based on the surrounding letters, and how to derive linguistic information from tone and pace.

At this level, learners can recognize, produce, and adapt to various sounds in English based on a range of factors such as placement, surroundings, and exceptions to such rules. 

At this level, learners can understand and produce the variability in stress, rhythm, reduction, silencing, and intonation based on a multitude of factors, such as, verbal tense, sentence type, connected speech, and part of speech. 

At this level, learners can  recognize, produce, and adapt to real-world communication tasks derived from learners’ needs and goals by expanding perception or listening based pronunciation practice to include a variety of L2 accents. 

At this level, learners can recognize, produce, and investigate advanced concepts in pronunciation and to utilize critical thinking to make predictions about the usage and production of English sounds, words, and phrases.  

ASC Business English Program Achievement Scale: Levels One - Four

Skill/Level

Level One

Level Two

Level Three

Level Four

Reading

At this level, learners can understand the main ideas, organizational patterns, and key supporting details in business-related texts such as emails, memos, job postings, short reports, and informational articles, and to begin interpreting common business vocabulary and discourse structures.

At this level, learners can understand and synthesize information from multiple business-related texts, including longer reports, articles, proposals, and case studies, identifying arguments, organizational features, and implicit meaning.

At this level, learners can analyze and critically evaluate complex business texts, including academic articles, financial documents, proposals, and reports, identifying bias, assumptions, rhetorical strategies, and implications for decision-making.

At this level, learners can understand with ease all business-related texts, including abstract, academic, and specialized materials, and to synthesize and reformulate information, arguments, and perspectives with accuracy and insight.

Writing

At this level, learners can produce clear, organized written communication on familiar workplace topics, including short emails, summaries, and descriptions, using appropriate business vocabulary, accurate grammatical structures, and conventional formatting.

At this level, learners can produce cohesive and coherent written communication for a range of professional purposes, such as composing emails, reports, proposals, and summaries, integrating key information and demonstrating increased control of register and tone.

At this level, learners can produce clear, organized, and audience-appropriate professional texts that synthesize information, develop evidence-based arguments, and demonstrate control of tone, register, and advanced workplace communication conventions.

At this level, learners can produce sophisticated, audience-specific professional and academic-business texts that synthesize complex information, demonstrate rhetorical control, and communicate strategic recommendations with precision, nuance, and professional authority.

Listening

At this level, learners can understand the main ideas and important details of business-related speech such as short presentations, meetings, phone calls, and informational videos, and to develop strategies for note-taking and clarification.

At this level, learners can understand extended business-related spoken discourse, including presentations, interviews, meetings, and webinars, to extract key ideas, and to synthesize information from multiple sources.

At this level, learners can comprehend, evaluate, and respond to extended professional discourse by identifying speaker purpose, interpreting implied meaning, and analyzing arguments and viewpoints in workplace contexts.

At this level, learners can comprehend, analyze, and evaluate complex professional discourse, including abstract ideas, implicit meaning, competing viewpoints, and culturally influenced communication patterns in advanced business contexts.

Speaking

At this level, learners can communicate with increasing fluency and accuracy in routine professional interactions, to express opinions and share information on familiar topics, and to participate in short discussions using appropriate register and business-related vocabulary.

At this level, learners can participate in discussions, meetings, presentations, and brief negotiations, expressing viewpoints clearly and persuasively, adapting register to context, and using strategies for clarification, turn-taking, and summarizing.

At this level, learners can communicate complex ideas clearly and persuasively in professional contexts by presenting information, supporting viewpoints, responding strategically, and adapting language to audience and purpose.

At this level, learners can communicate with fluency, precision, and strategic control in complex professional contexts by presenting ideas, leading discussions, negotiating meaning, and adapting communication for diverse audiences.

Grammar

At this level, learners can use intermediate-level grammatical structures common in business communication, including complex verb tenses, modals of obligation and advice, comparatives, and conditionals, with increasing control and confidence.

At this level, learners can improve accuracy, flexibility, and discourse-level control of complex grammatical structures that support extended speaking and writing tasks in professional contexts.

At this level, learners can use advanced grammatical structures accurately and flexibly to express complex ideas, manage professional relationships, emphasize information, and communicate with appropriate precision, nuance, and register in academic-professional and workplace contexts.

At this level, learners can use a full range of grammatical structures with accuracy, flexibility, and strategic control to communicate complex ideas, emphasize meaning, express subtle distinctions, and adapt language choices for advanced professional and academic business contexts.

Pronunciation

At this level, learners can improve intelligibility, stress, rhythm, and the production of targeted segmental sounds, and to develop awareness of word stress and intonation patterns common in business discourse.

At this level, learners can improve intelligibility, prosody, lexical stress, and rhythm for extended speaking tasks such as presentations, meetings, and group discussions.

At this level, learners can refine pronunciation, rhythm, stress, and intonation patterns to communicate complex ideas clearly, persuasively, and appropriately in professional presentations, discussions, and negotiations.

At this level, learners can demonstrate advanced control of pronunciation, stress, rhythm, and intonation to communicate complex ideas clearly, adapt delivery to professional audiences, and convey meaning, emphasis, and nuance in advanced business contexts.

ASC Achievement Scale: TOEFL Preparation and Business English(stand-alone course)

Skill/Level

TOEFL Preparation

Business English (stand-alone course)

Reading

At this level, learners can become familiar with the Reading section of the TOEFL exam and develop skills for reading and comprehending academic materials in

English, in order to help them predict what is required and the best way to achieve

their desired TOEFL reading section score.

At this level, learners can understand, with ease, varying sources of business-focused written production in English, to work toward near-native English reading

comprehension ability in business-related settings.

Writing

At this level, learners can become familiar with the Writing section of the TOEFL exam and develop skills for producing academic writing that clearly conveys well-organized ideas in English, in order to help them predict what is required and the best way to achieve their desired TOEFL writing section score.

At this level, learners can develop skills for effective writing in English, including coherently composing informational summaries and reconstructed arguments and accounts, to work toward achieving near-native English writing ability in business-related settings.

Listening

At this level, learners can become familiar with the Listening section of the TOEFL exam and develop skills for comprehending academic conversations and lectures in English and mastering note-taking strategies for all listening passages throughout the test, in order to help them predict what is required and the best way to achieve their desired TOEFL listening section score.

At this level, learners can understand, with ease, varying sources of business-focused spoken production in English and to differentiate finer shades of meaning even in complex situations, to work toward near-native English listening comprehension ability in business-related settings.

Speaking

At this level, learners can become familiar with the Speaking section of the TOEFL exam and develop skills for speaking English effectively in academic settings, including expressing and explaining preferences and verbally demonstrating understanding of academic and university-related topics, in order to help them predict what is required and the best way to achieve their desired TOEFL speaking section score.

At this level, learners can develop skills for effective speaking in English, including coherently communicating informational summaries and effectively presenting reconstructed arguments and accounts while expressing themselves spontaneously, fluently, and precisely, to work toward achieving near-native English speaking ability in business-related and workplace settings.

Grammar

At this level, learners can access a range of pragmatic devices to express not only directness, politeness, voice, more information or detail but also do so through correct use of regular and irregular forms of English grammar.

At this level, learners can access a range of pragmatic devices to express not only directness, politeness, voice, more information or detail but also do so through correct use of regular and irregular forms of English grammar.

Pronunciation

At this level, learners can focus on real-world communication tasks derived from learners’ needs and goals by expanding perception or listening based pronunciation practice to include a variety of English accents.

At this level, learners can focus on real-world communication tasks derived from learners’ needs and goals by expanding perception or listening based pronunciation practice to include a variety of English accents.

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