Language difficulty categories

[Neil Bermel]

The DLI categories mentioned by Loren and Leslie are based on the number of
hours it takes students to go from zero competence to various levels on the
DLI's proficiency scale.  Interestingly enough, the ranking of languages
does change depending on what level of proficiency you're measuring.  So it
takes students of Russian, Czech, etc. longer to reach low levels of
proficiency than it does for e.g. students of French, Spanish, etc. but at
higher levels, the Slavic languages are equalled or overtaken by others
(Chinese, German) in the amount of time required to reach proficiency.

At any rate, I don't think the DLI rankings are an objective measure of
difficulty for English native speakers (or that the DLI would claim it to
be so):  they're just a measure of how long it takes students to reach a
certain level of proficiency as defined by a particular organization.  If
you start with that caveat, they are not a bad yardstick for comparison.

Neil

Neil Bermel
Russian and Slavonic Studies
University of Sheffield
Sheffield S10 2TN U.K.
+44 (0)114 222 7405 phone
+44 (0)114 222 7416 fax

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