Canadian Language Benchmarks

The Canadian Language Benchmarks (CLB), or Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadien (NCLC) in French, is a 12-point scale of task-based language proficiency descriptors used to guide the teaching and assessment of learners of English and French languages in Canada. Like the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages and the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines, the Canadian Language Benchmarks describe learners' successive levels of communicative achievement.

The CLB's 12 benchmarks are divided into 3 stages of proficiency: basic, intermediate and advanced, covering listening, speaking, reading and writing. The theory behind the CLB includes pragmatic knowledge, grammatical knowledge, textual knowledge, functional knowledge, and sociolinguistic knowledge.

Each benchmark is then described in terms of "can do" statements or "performance descriptors". For example, the following are two task descriptors for Benchmark 5 in writing, from the 2012 version:

  • Write short business or service correspondence for routine personal needs.
  • Write a paragraph to relate a familiar sequence of events, description of a person, object or routine.
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